At the launch of Colombia’s national ecosystem assessment held virtually on 30 June 2021, authors and experts called for an urgent need to shift to better environmental management and stronger implementation of environmental legislation to halt the country’s rapid biodiversity loss. During the assessment, 105 experts from scientific, traditional and local knowledge backgrounds came together to articulate multiple scenarios for the trajectory of Colombia’s biodiversity and ecosystems until 2050 and its impacts on people’s wellbeing.