IUCN World Conservation Congress 

The IUCN World Conservation Congress took place from 3-11 September 2021 in Marseille, France, in a hybrid format with nearly 6,000 registered participants on site and more than 3,500 online participants. As a founding and very active member of IUCN, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) participated in the main three components of the congress: The Members' Assembly, The Forum, and the Exhibition.

Held once every four years, the IUCN World Conservation Congress (WCC) brings together several thousand leaders and decision-makers from government, conservation and other NGOs, civil society, indigenous peoples, business, UN agencies, intergovernmental organisations, and academia, to influence the direction of conservation and global sustainable development for the next four years and to improve how we manage our natural environment for human, social and economic development.

This year, the IUCN Congress focused on three main themes: the post-2020 biodiversity conservation framework, to be adopted by the parties to the UN Biodiversity Convention; the role of nature in the global recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic; and the need to transform the global financial system and direct investments into projects that benefit nature. In total, IUCN’s more than 1,500 Members adopted 148 resolutions and recommendations, 39 through a vote at the IUCN Congress in Marseille, and 109 through online voting prior to the event. More information available here.

Election for IUCN Council 2021 - 2025

IUCN Members elected a new Council for 2021-25, including for the positions of President, Treasurer, Chairs of Commissions and Regional Councillors. 

We are pleased that two WCS colleagues were elected to the IUCN Council:

Dr. Madhu Rao, Senior Advisor for WCS Asia, will chair the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA). Dr. Rao is a long-term WCPA member, with deep experience in protected areas and species conservation. She supports field programs at priority sites across Asia, implementing protected area creation and management, addressing human-wildlife conflict, and engaged with policy development.   

Dr. Susan Lieberman, WCS Vice President for International Policy, will serve as a Regional Councilor for North America and the Caribbean. Dr. Lieberman is the 1st woman representing the United States at this level in the 75-year history. She has worked in international biodiversity conservation, at the intersection of science and policy, for her entire professional career. Currently, Dr. Lieberman directs and leads WCS’s policy engagement in multiple intergovernmental fora, including CITES, CMS, CBD, and the UNESCO-World Heritage Convention, and she is actively engaged with the CBD post-2020 biodiversity framework.

“We congratulate our colleagues Dr. Madhu Rao and Dr. Sue Lieberman whose decades of experience and commitment to conservation will serve the IUCN Council and members of IUCN well in these challenging times. We are grateful to Dr. John Robinson, former Executive Vice President for Conservation and Science at WCS, for serving on the IUCN Council for the past nine years.” WCS President and CEO Dr. Cristián Samper

                                                                            (Left to right): Dr. Madhu Rao and Dr. Sue Lieberman 

Selected Forum sessions and Exhibit events of interest

 

Saturday, 4 September

• Biodiversity Offset Financing
• Integrated Ocean Management through MSP / MPA Planning in Oceania
• Genetic Frontiers for Conservation
• Broad scale adoptions of conservation technologies

 

Sunday, 5 September

• Advancing mitigation and offset policy to conserve biodiversity
• Using Innovative Technologies to Improve Conservation Outcomes
• Science-based targets for Ecosystems in the post-2020 framework for Biodiversity
• In the Conflict Zone: Conservation in Troubled Environment
• IUCN Green List of Species
• Women and power: enabling environments for gender-responsive conservation
• Capacity Building - Turning Data into Practice (SMART)

 

Monday, 6 September

• Recognising and Supporting OECMs
• High Seas: From Science to Decision
• Conservation Trust Funds as one way of safeguarding high biodiversity areas (LLF)
• Sustainable wildlife management: the food, biodiversity and health nexus
• Key Biodiversity Area conservation in a post-2020 world
• Launch of the International Alliance against Health Risks in Wildlife Trade
• Convergence: The Case for Combating Conservation Crimes

 

Tuesday, 7 September

• Do protected areas actually work? How and why we measure site-level performance
• Connecting protected areas and beyond to safeguard mountainous ecosystem services
• Renewable energy and biodiversity: implementation of the mitigation hierarchy
• Closing Plenary: Conservation Knowledge for Conservation Impact

WCS speakers

 

In the news

• To save our planet, let’s embrace nature-positive solutions
• Delegates hash out UN biodiversity goals at virtual meeting
• Le monde au chevet de la nature
• Congreso Mundial de la Naturaleza abre en medio de alarma por previsiones climáticas

 

Pictures from the Congress

 WCS staff at the Members' Assembly (left to right): Madhu Rao, Liz Bennett, John Robinson

  WCS staff at the Exhibit (left to right): Emilie Fairet, Arnaud Goessens, Sandy Andelman, Clémence Bourlet

Presentation at the Post-2020 pavilion

 Presentation at the Conservation Finance pavilion

 

READ MORE

WCS briefing for the IUCN WCC 2021
Two WCS Conservationists Elected to IUCN Council