Dear friend, I come before you today not as a professional, but as a humble messenger, a mere voice echoing the urgent call of our planet's ecosystems. Today, I invite you to join a noble cause, a cause that goes beyond our individual interests and speaks to the very essence of our humanity. I invite you to become guardians of the paramos, those precious ecosystems that are essential to the survival of life on Earth.

What are the Paramos, you may ask?

But sadly, the Paramos are in grave danger. A new study in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution is among the first to predict the vulnerability of ecosystems in the Andes to both climate change and human activities. The researchers’ models predict that these habitats will shrink substantially in the next 30 years without conservation efforts. The Frailejones, the unique plants that inhabit these ecosystems, are disappearing at an alarming rate, putting the Paramos and their vital services at risk. We cannot let this happen, my dear friends. We cannot stand by and watch as our planet's natural systems collapse. We must act, and we must act now.

So, I invite you today to become a Guardian of the Paramos. I invite you to join hands with us in our mission to protect and restore these vital ecosystems. I invite you to make a pledge to protect the Frailejones, to support reforestation efforts, and to promote sustainable land use practices.

I know that this may not be an easy task, my dear friends. It will require sacrifice, dedication, and hard work. But we cannot afford to be complacent. We cannot afford to turn a blind eye to the destruction of our planet's natural systems. Let us rise up, my dear friends, We must act, and we must act together. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."