The 'Act for the Living' festival brought together more than 12,000 people to learn about sustainability and conservation.

The Comfama Actuar por lo Vivo 2025 festival was held around discussions on climate justice, post-COP16 assessments, and the role of businesses in protecting biodiversity. This event took place in three regions of Antioquia: Medellín, Támesis, and Valparaíso, and engaged citizens in 95 activities.

At this knowledge gathering, as well as at the Back to the Origins Market, which attracted more than 50 guests and over 12,000 attendees, companies that are incorporating sustainability into their strategies participated. There were also 150 people from sustainability teams who brought their concerns to these spaces.

At a residence in the Biosuroeste Agropark, between Támesis and Valparaíso, 32 organizations, including livestock associations, companies from various sectors, including production and tourism, as well as environmentalists and representatives from academia and institutions, forged agreements to preserve nature, understand it as an extension of who we are , and cooperate to achieve actions for good living in the territories.

“Act for the Living and the Back to the Origin Market continue to establish themselves as spaces for encounter, reflection and action around a difficult topic with a great sense of urgency, a meeting point for entrepreneurs, artists, academics, social and environmental leaders , representatives of Afro, Indigenous and peasant communities, which allow us to listen to and integrate diverse voices to find solutions and recognize progress in the work to reverse the climate crisis, fair trade, and the health of ecosystems, putting life at the center, highlighting local visions and efforts and joining a conversation of global impact,” said Andrés Valencia, Head of Festivals at Comfama.

These discussions featured Hugo Mantilla, a Colombian biologist who has worked as a consultant for the World Health Organization. He said, "Science is enriched by sensitivity, just like art." The academic also spoke about the principle of interconnectedness. Science draws on art and ancestral knowledge, just as economics can draw inspiration from natural processes to devise regenerative forms of productivity.

On the other hand, Ignacio Piedrahíta, another of the voices that came to the event to talk about art for the preservation of ecosystems, participated in Listening to the River: Poetry, Cosmologies and Ancestral Knowledge in the Defense of Nature. He relied on his knowledge of geology to expand his creative universe in stories that speak of rivers, rock formations, their traces and how all of this tells us about the history of Colombia.

Meanwhile, Enilda Jiménez, who is in charge of the Surikí Reserve (a 500-hectare protected area located between Urabá and Darién), emphasized that nature has the ability to transform a wound into life. “There is no regeneration without reconciliation,” she added.

The eight-day agenda featured more than 95 activities and 53 guests, including former minister and COP16 advisor Angélica Mayolo, one of the guardians of the Atrato River; Karina Batthyány, executive secretary of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences; Dora Moncada, director of the National Center for Water and Biodiversity at ANDI; Alicia Lozano, director of outreach at the Humboldt Institute; and other experts in the field.