Countdown begins to world’s leading biodiversity summit

The IUCN Congress will provide a crucial window of opportunity to deliver transformative action needed for a sustainable and resilient future for both people and nature. It will mobilise key actors five years ahead of the deadline for achieving global targets on biodiversity.

“Faced with unprecedented global crises, the world is in dire need of collective action to conserve our planet’s life support systems. The good news is that this is not an unsurmountable challenge. The 2025 IUCN Congress will bring together the conservation community, States, Indigenous peoples, the private sector and professionals from across society, to collectively address the nature crisis with ambition and determination, while ensuring all voices are included,” said IUCN President, Razan Al Mubarak.

“By bringing together the conservation community with actors from across society around a common purpose, the IUCN Congress gives us hope and confidence that we can unite governments, civil society, private sector companies, Indigenous communities and the youth to build a more resilient world for people and nature,” said IUCN Director General Dr Grethel Aguilar. “We know that healthy ecosystems are critical for our wellbeing, and we understand the urgent need for transformative action – this upcoming Congress is a priceless opportunity to translate this conviction into impactful action. We are looking forward to hearing the powerful collective voice of our Union. Together, we can build a planet where people and nature thrive as one.”

The IUCN Congress 2025 will take place 9–15 October in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, under the slogan Powering transformative conservation. Held every four years, the IUCN World Conservation Congress brings together world leaders and representatives from governments, science, academia, Indigenous peoples’ groups, non-governmental organisations, regional and local authorities and businesses to help address the world’s most pressing environmental and sustainability challenges.

The IUCN World Conservation Congress 2025 will address the following five themes:

• Scaling Up Resilient Conservation Action
• Reducing Climate Overshoot Risks
• Delivering on Equity
• Transitioning to Nature-Positive Economies and Societies
• Disruptive Innovation and Leadership for Conservation

These themes emphasise the need to accelerate the implementation of the global biodiversity framework, to climate-proof conservation solutions, and to combine ancestral Indigenous knowledge with cutting-edge innovation at all levels, from local to global. They also stress the importance of including all voices, from Indigenous peoples to civil society to rangers, shift to nature-positive economies globally, and empower the next generation of leaders.

IUCN Congresses have been instrumental in shaping the most important global conservation initiatives over the last three-quarters of a century. These include the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).