[Feature Report] Looking Back on the IUCN World Conservation Congress
published on 21 September 2021
With France, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) organized its World Conservation Congress from September 3 to 11, 2021 in Marseille.
The IUCN’s World Conservation Congress marked a moment of mobilization and an important step in the ongoing search for solutions for the unprecedented crisis facing the world’s biodiversity.
Founded in 1948, IUCN publishes, among other things, the Red List of Threatened Species and brings together nearly 1,400 members of associations, national committees and government representatives worldwide.
This congress, held every four years, brought together state representatives, businesses, development banks, universities, civil society and indigenous peoples to define priorities and future actions, all with an eye to providing nature with greater protection – on a planetary scale.
Biodiversity is at last being taken more seriously, particularly in the lead up to two crucial meetings for the preservation of the environment this year: the COP15 on biodiversity (organized online in October and then in China in 2022), and the COP26 on climate (October 31 to November 12 in Glasgow, Scotland).
AFD has sent a strong message on the catalytic role that development banks can have in terms of mobilizing investment. The defense of biodiversity is a priority area of action for AFD Group, which has incorporated it in its activities with the aim of reconciling development with nature. In 2020, 565 million euros in commitments were made in favor of biodiversity, with a target of one billion euros in 2025.
