On October 23, 2024, in the context of COP16, the UN biodiversity conference held in Calí, Colombia, Mathis Wackernagel was honored by the Colombian Congress with the “Gran Cruz con Placa de Oro” on recommendation of the honorable representative Julia Miranda.
According to Colombian law, “La Gran Cruz con Placa de Oro”, may be granted to Parliamentarians, former Parliamentarians, Ambassadors, Ministers of State, Generals of the Armed Forces, Admirals, Marshals, Foreign Cardinals, Princes of Reigning Houses, and to national or foreign personalities whose categories are equivalent to those already mentioned. 
(Article 9: “La Gran Cruz con Placa de Oro, podrá concederse a Parlamentarios, ex Parlamentarios, Embajadores, Ministros de Estado, Generales de las Fuerzas Armadas, Almirantes, Mariscales, Cardenales extranjeros, Príncipes de Casas reinantes, y a personalidades nacionales o extranjeras cuyas categorías equivalgan a las ya mencionadas.”)
This event was led by the presidents of both chambers, Jaime Raúl Salamanca, Presidente de la Cámara de Representantes, and Efraín Cepeda, Presidente del Senado de la República de Colombia. It was also supported by Representante Julia Miranda Loroño, the governor of the Valle del Cauca, Dilian Francisca Toro as well as Senadora Aída Yolanda Avella. You can learn more about the ceremony and the rationale here.
In addition, one day later, on October 24, 2024, the Colombian House of Representatives decorated Mathis also with the “Orden de la Democracia Simón Bolívar“. He received the medal simultaneously with Margarita Marino de Botero, a giant of the environmental movement of both Colombia and the world. She was also one of the 18 members of the Brundtland Commission. More about the ceremony is presented here.