IUCN World Conservation Congress 2025: Blueprint for Global Environmental Action

The IUCN World Conservation Congress concluded in Abu Dhabi on 15th October, shaping a renewed global conservation agenda.

The IUCN World Conservation Congress 2025 that concluded in Abu Dhabi on October 15, sheds light on evolving global environmental governance. Hosted for the first time in the United Arab Emirates, the IUCN Congress brought together over 10,000 delegates from 189 countries to address the planet’s most pressing environmental issues. 

IUCN Members adopted a 20-year Vision and four-year (2026-2029) Programme ‘Nature 2030: One nature, one future’ for the Union. This was anchored by the Abu Dhabi Call to Action and 148 adopted motions that set new standards for biodiversity protection, climate resilience, and inclusive governance.

The Congress achieved a milestone by securing ISO 20121:2024 certification, demonstrating compliance with rigorous sustainability standards across economic, environmental, social, and governance dimensions, setting a benchmark for future global conservation events.

Abu Dhabi Call to Action: Five Principles for Transformation

The Abu Dhabi Call to Action serves as the definitive declaration of the Congress, articulating five core principles that demand global action:

1. Reaffirming Nature as Foundation: Protect all ecosystems and recognize nature’s role in health, culture, and development; defend Indigenous custodians of nature.
2. Strengthening Multilateralism: Align all sectors and policies with nature-based goals; ensure accountability through collective global action.
3. Ensuring Justice and Inclusive Participation: Adopt a rights-based approach empowering women, youth, Indigenous Peoples, and environmental defenders in shared decision-making.
4. Advancing Science, Knowledge, and Innovation: Integrate scientific, traditional, and Indigenous knowledge; invest in research, citizen science, and sustainable technologies.
5. Scaling Up and Aligning Resources: Redirect finance toward a climate-resilient economy; eliminate harmful subsidies driving environmental degradation.

20-Year Vision: Conserving Integrity and Diversity

At the heart of the Abu Dhabi outcomes lies the Unite for Nature on the path to 2045: A 20-year Strategic Vision. This Vision commits the Union to “influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and ensure that any use of natural resources is both equitable and ecologically sustainable.”

The framework integrates three interconnected aims: conserving biodiversity effectively, addressing connections between biodiversity, water, food, health, and climate change, and advancing a more just and equitable society. By explicitly linking biodiversity to geodiversity, water, food systems, and public health, the vision formalizes the integration required for cross-cutting mandates like ‘One Health’.

Complementing this long-term vision, the Congress approved a Quadrennial Programme for 2026–2029, providing concrete outputs and measurable deliverables aligned with critical 2030 global deadlines. This includes the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the Paris Agreement, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

IUCN’s strategic framework outlines four focus areas including scaling up conservation action, transforming response, mobilising and managing key resources.

Addressing Frontier Challenges 

The 148 policy motions adopted demonstrate the Union’s commitment to both perennial conservation challenges and emerging frontier issues. Key Policy Motions adopted:

• Motion 42 on fossil fuel: For the first time the Motion calls for supply-side measures for guidance on a just phaseout of coal, oil, and gas. This landmark decision signals a shift toward addressing the root drivers of climate change and biodiversity loss.
• Motion 108 on Wildlife Pet Trade: Addresses the commercial wildlife pet trade’s role in species decimation by shifting from a default-permissive “negative list” to a proactive, risk-based framework.
• Motion 133 on Synthetic Biology: This defends ecological integrity and applies the precautionary approach to synthetic biology, gene drives, and self-spreading vaccines, calling for a moratorium on environmental releases due to irreversibility, unpredictable risks, and transboundary effects.
• Motion on One Health: The Congress has adopted a motion to integrate the One Health Approach into conservation policies, linking biodiversity, health, climate, and the SDGs. This framework acknowledges biodiversity’s role in preventing future zoonotic crises and strengthens conservation mandates by leveraging public health and economic security arguments.

IUCN World Heritage Outlook 2025

The IUCN World Heritage Outlook 2025 (Outlook 4) revealed that climate change is the greatest threat, impacting 43% of natural World Heritage sites. The report tracks a decline in global status, with only 57% of sites maintaining a positive conservation outlook, down from 62% in 2020. 

It calls for urgent action, including stronger governance, greater investment in climate adaptation, and recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ roles in conservation.

Indigenous Peoples: From Consultation to Co-Creation

The Congress positioned justice, equity, and inclusive participation as prerequisites for conservation success, as it hosted the first World Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Nature. The framework demands recognizing Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) as custodians with inherent decision-making power, requiring a profound shift from mere consultation to genuine co-creation.

The policy architecture emphasized “scaling deep”, redefining success metrics by prioritizing qualitative impacts like cultural change over purely quantitative metrics. This approach ensures long-term resilience by rooting action in cultural and behavioral change led by local and Indigenous leadership.

India’s Leadership: National Red List Roadmap

India leveraged the World Conservation Congress platform to launch its National Red List Roadmap Vision 2025–2030, transforming a domestic commitment into an international pledge. Developed collaboratively by the Zoological Survey of India, Botanical Survey of India, and IUCN-India, this roadmap outlines a science-based system for assessing nearly 11,000 species of plants and animals by 2030.

This initiative aligns India’s domestic data infrastructure with the Abu Dhabi mandate for advancing science and knowledge. As one of the world’s 17 megadiverse countries harboring four of the 36 global biodiversity hotspots, India’s National Red List framework provides essential baseline data, threat analysis, and conservation priorities needed for informed policy-making.

Additionally, renowned Indian wildlife conservationist Vivek Menon was elected as the new Chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) for 2025–2029. This marks the first time in the SSC’s 75-year history that an Asian leader will head the global body.

Conclusion

The World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi represents an unified global commitment, delivering an integrated, just, and scientifically rigorous policy framework. The governance continuity combined with Panama’s selection to host the 2027 World Protected and Conserved Areas Congress, confirms sustained high-level commitment. 

The IUCN, through its Red Data List and global conservation standards, continues to serve as the authoritative foundation for evidence-based biodiversity policy, providing the scientific benchmarks against which the success of these initiatives will be measured. 

As the window for effective environmental intervention rapidly closes, the policy reforms established must now be rigorously enforced across all global and domestic governance systems. The Abu Dhabi Mandate offers the roadmap, the question is whether the international community possesses the political will to implement it decisively before the 2030 deadline arrives.

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IUCN World Conservation Congress 2025 FAQs

1. When was IUCN World Conservation Congress 2025 concluded? 

Ans. October 15, 2025.

2. Where was the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2025 held? 

Ans. Abu Dhabi, UAE.

3. How many countries participated in the IUCN Congress 2025? 

Ans. 189 countries.

4. What is the Abu Dhabi Call to Action? 

Ans. A political declaration with five core principles for global conservation transformation.

5. How many policy motions were adopted at IUCN Congress 2025? 

Ans. 148 motions.