IUCN World Conservation Congress

Why is in news? UAE to Host World's Largest Conservation Conference in 2025

• The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has won the bid to host the 2025 World Conservation Congress (WCC) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
• The WCC is the world's largest and most important gathering of conservationists, and it is expected to draw more than 10,000 delegates from over 160 countries.
• The UAE has a long history of environmental protection, and it is home to a number of important conservation initiatives, including the Sheikh Zayed Desert Learning Center and the Al Ain Oasis.
• The 2025 WCC will be held in Abu Dhabi from October 10-21, 2025.
• The event will be an opportunity for conservationists from around the world to come together and discuss the most pressing environmental challenges facing our planet.
• The WCC is also expected to produce a number of important resolutions and recommendations that will help to guide future conservation efforts.
• The IUCN WCC in 2025 in Abu Dhabi will be an event which could galvanise conservation actions to protect our planet, amid local and global challenges.

IUCN World Conservation Congress:

• The WCC is held every four years, the IUCN Congress is the world’s largest conservation event.
• In the past, Congresses were held every two years, then every three, and now they are held every four years.
• Initially, the Congress only consisted of the Members’ Assembly of all IUCN member organizations.
• Since 1996, the Congress has grown to include the Forum, open to all, to debate major sustainable development issues, propose solutions and facilitate the sharing of information and experiences.
• It brings together leaders from government, civil society, Indigenous peoples’ organisations, business and academia to determine the world’s most pressing environmental and development challenges, and actions to address them.
• The Congress aims to improve how we manage our natural environment for human, social and economic development, but this cannot be achieved by conservationists alone.
• The IUCN Congress is the place to put aside differences and work together to create good environmental governance, engaging all parts of society to share both the responsibilities and the benefits of conservation.
• The IUCN Congress will address ways to deliver the Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted by over 190 countries last December. The Framework comprises targets to scale up the conservation of ecosystems, species and genetic diversity.
• The last IUCN World Conservation Congress, held in 2021 in Marseille, France, was attended by almost 6,000 people on site and over 3,500 participants online.
• IUCN’s more than 1,500 Members adopted 148 resolutions and recommendations, such as a call to protect 80% of the Amazon by 2025, to halt deep-sea mining across the oceans, and for the global community to adopt an ambitious One Health approach.
• The IUCN Climate Crisis Commission was also established.

International Union for Conservation of Nature:

• It was established in 1948, IUCN has evolved into the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network.
• It was initially called the International Union for the Protection of Nature (1948–1956) and has also been formerly known as the World Conservation Union (1990–2008).
• The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.
• It is involved in data gathering and analysis, research, field projects, advocacy, and education.
• IUCN's mission is to "influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable".
• Today the organisation is well known for its knowledge products, such as the Red List of Species, Red List of Ecosystems, Key Biodiversity Areas and the Green Lists which are widely used in setting conservation priorities for threatened species, ecosystems and in identification of important areas for protection and recommendations that will help to guide future conservation efforts.
• IUCN has a membership of over 1,400 governmental and non-governmental organizations. Some 16,000 scientists and experts participate in the work of IUCN commissions on a voluntary basis.
• It employs over 900 full-time staff in more than 50 countries. Its headquarters are in Gland, Switzerland.
• IUCN has observer and consultative status at the United Nations, and plays a role in the implementation of several international conventions on nature conservation and biodiversity.
• It was involved in establishing the World Wide Fund for Nature and the World Conservation Monitoring Centre.