IUCN World Conservation Congress concludes in Abu Dhabi with ambitious vision for nature conservation
Held in the UAE for the first time, the Congress took place under the generous patronage of President of the United Arab Emirates, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
The 2025 IUCN Congress brought together over 10,000 attendees, on-site and online, as was the first to ever host a World Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Nature. The IUCN Congress brought together decision-makers from government, civil society, Indigenous Peoples' Organisations, academia, and business for more than 1000 events aimed at setting the conservation and sustainable development agenda for decades to come.
Members approved the 20-year Strategic Vision and a new programme for the next four-year period. Her Excellency Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak will serve a second term as the Union’s President alongside newly elected members of the IUCN Commissions and Council.
She said: “Ours is not an easy task, but it is an essential one: to bridge divides - between science and policy, between climate and biodiversity, between people and the planet itself. To remind the world that nature is not only a victim of our excesses, but a powerful ally in our survival... Let us leave Abu Dhabi with the confidence that what unites us is far greater than what divides us — our shared belief in the resilience of life itself.”
Speaking at the closing, IUCN Director General, Dr Grethel Aguilar said: “This Congress has been a testament to the power of collaboration, teamwork and commitment... From Abu Dhabi, we send a clear and united message. We are one Union determined to turn the tide. Let us leave this Congress with renewed hope and determination - to stand for life, to act for nature, and to build a future where people and planet thrive together.”
With only five years left to achieve the 2030 targets set by the Global Biodiversity Framework, the Paris Agreement, and the Sustainable Development Goals, the Congress in Abu Dhabi urged the global community to raise its ambition and intensify collective efforts to scale up transformative, collaborative solutions that benefit both people and nature. Participants particularly underscored the need to harness the current momentum to strengthen synergies among multilateral environmental agreements and to secure bold, coordinated action toward a net-zero, resilient, and nature-positive future at UNFCCC COP30 in Belém and beyond.
The first policy on synthetic biology in relation to nature conservation, a motion to recognise ecocide as a crime, and motions to strengthen governance and inclusion were among the 148 Resolutions adopted by IUCN Members at the IUCN Members’ Assembly in Abu Dhabi.
The Members’ Assembly is the Union’s highest decision-making body and brings together IUCN Members to debate and establish environmental policy, to approve the IUCN Programme and to elect the IUCN Council and President.
Final resolutions and recommendations as adopted by the IUCN Congress 2025 will be available here. Vote results are available here.
Several high-impact announcements and pledges were unveiled to bolster global conservation efforts. The Abu Dhabi Action Plan calls on the global community, under IUCN’s leadership, to accelerate urgent and practical action across five key areas: reaffirming nature as the foundation of well-being, strengthening multilateralism, ensuring justice and inclusion, advancing knowledge and innovation, and scaling up resources for nature and climate action. It sets a collective vision for transformative change – uniting governments, communities, and sectors to achieve a just, resilient, and nature-positive future for people and the planet.
IUCN welcomed over 100 new Members into its Union during the Congress – including six states Armenia, Tajikistan, Marshall Islands, Gabon, Tuvalu, and Zimbabwe.
There were several global and Union-wide initiatives announced, including the selection of the Republic of Panamá to be the host country for the next IUCN World Protected and Conserved Areas Congress in September 2027 – the world’s premier global Forum for setting the agenda for protected and conserved areas.
The IUCN Congress 2025 has been certified compliant with the ISO 20121:2024 Standard, in recognition of its commitment to ensure that all aspects of Congress adhere to rigorous sustainability standards.
Major scientific announcements included the latest update of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ which revealed growing threats to Arctic seals driven by climate change. Another assessment found nearly 100 additional wild bee species in Europe has been classified as threatened. IUCN also launched the 4th World Heritage Outlook report which revealed that climate change threatens 43% of natural World Heritage sites.
