Aligning Global Action for Nature, Wildlife, and People at the IUCN World Conservation Congress

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is the world’s largest environmental network, and its World Conservation Congress (WCC) brings together governments, NGOs like NRDC, Indigenous Peoples’ groups, and academic institutions to set shared commitments and act on urgent challenges facing nature and wildlife. The WCC—held only once every four years—links directly to other global forums, such as the United Nations’ climate and biodiversity conventions, and reinforces new frameworks like the High Seas Treaty. This year’s gathering came at a pivotal moment of rapid geopolitical change, reflecting both the passion driving the conservation community and the growing urgency for action that the world can no longer delay.

NRDC joined thousands of scientists, experts, advocates, and world leaders at the WCC in Abu Dhabi to help set the global conservation agenda for the next four years and beyond. NRDC has been an active participant and has taken the lead on multiple conservation efforts at the Congress for the past 50 years. This year was no different.

The Congress adopted nine major resolutions led by NRDC, addressing key challenges in forests, oceans, wildlife, and governance and that signaled clear calls to action for scaling up ambition and action. These moves include urgent action to protect the critically endangered Rice’s whale in the Gulf of Mexico, overhaul how wild species are used and traded, strengthen accountability in global deforestation efforts, and assess the climate and biodiversity impacts of industrial forest biomass.

Crucially, one new resolution NRDC sponsored reaffirmed the IUCN’s commitment to multilateralism: recognizing that global cooperation is essential to tackle nature, climate, and human health threats. The package sets an ambitious four-year roadmap for turning policy into concrete action and builds momentum toward key upcoming global milestones, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Global Biodiversity Framework, which set 23 global targets for urgent action over the decade to 2030, and the United Nations COP30 climate talks in November 2025.

The WCC had impassioned and heated conversations on a variety of issues, including on new areas of focus in the conservation space, such as the use of synthetic biology and geoengineering, along with continued pleas for action on existential threats, such as plastic pollution. 

The WCC also became the first international multilateral gathering of its kind to adopt a motion that confronts fossil fuel production as a threat to nature, setting a new precedent in global conservation that you can’t protect nature while expanding supplies of coal, oil, and gas. This follows the recent International Court of Justice advisory opinion on climate change affirming the obligation of nations to prevent climate harm (also the subject of a successful IUCN motion that NRDC cosponsored) and aligns with growing global consensus that action on fossil fuels is a legal and moral duty for both climate and nature.   

However, at times, government representatives themselves became roadblocks to progress—seeking to delay or dilute motions, reducing the level of ambition on motions, asserting dominance over other IUCN members, and disregarding scientific consensus, as seen in efforts to scale back ambition on proposals, like one supporting an area-based conservation target of 50 percent of the planet.

Vague rules of procedure also became obstacles to progress. A good example is a motion that called to halt development in the Aldabra Atoll area of the Seychelles, a World Heritage site. Despite it being accepted as a “new and urgent” motion requiring action at this Congress, consideration was deferred until the next WCC—after the area will be irreparably damaged. Political agendas and imperfect rules of procedure that bog down the motions process and limit the ability to have robust conversations are all responsible for such obstacles, but NRDC will continue to work to fix these and ensure that such barriers to action are removed. Because, the ambition, desire, and passion from the collective conservation community is still very much alive and ready to act. 

The WCC provides an opportunity to influence not just the IUCN’s global conservation priorities but also how those priorities are set. The integrity of democratic processes at the WCC is essential to achieving durable, equitable outcomes for the planet. NRDC has long been a leading voice in improving and fine-tuning the IUCN’s governance, so we will also continue to push for governance reforms following the 2025 Congress. 

Now is the time to lean into—not back away from—global cooperation. The IUCN World Conservation Congress has set the stage for major milestones ahead, from upcoming climate and biodiversity negotiations to future summits on endangered species trade, building on past momentum for action on behalf of people and the planet. 

We can secure a livable future for all species—but only by working together. NRDC remains steadfast in its belief that real progress comes through cooperation and multilateralism, while ensuring moments like this don’t become rubberstamps but catalysts for genuine action. By reaffirming our commitment to shared solutions, we can protect nature and wildlife, confront the climate crisis, and ensure no community or ecosystem is left behind.

NRDC motions approved via electronic vote, which were affirmed collectively

NRDC sponsored motions that passed at the members’ assembly

Governance reforms adopted

• Motion A: Improvements to the motions process at Congress. Strengthens participation, clarity, and timely consideration of motions and appeals so members can advance solutions efficiently.

• Motion B: Criteria for accepting motions (IUCN rules of procedure, Rule 54). Builds upon consensus reached at the Congress for necessary changes to the Rules of Procedure for motions through a participatory process that will recommend further reforms that will apply at the next Congress.