IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

IUCN launches Resolutions and Recommendations Platform

05 June 2014 | News story

IUCN Resolutions and Recommendations are now more accessible and easier to search than ever with the new IUCN Resolutions and Recommendations Platform. The Platform, available online in English, French and Spanish, gives an opportunity to explore IUCN Resolutions and Recommendations that have shaped the global conservation agenda and the Union’s policy on important issues over the past 65 years.

This will help Members, IUCN staff and Commissions to make better use of IUCN Resolutions and Recommendations to influence policy, guide conservation action and develop new motions for up-coming World Conservation Congresses.

“This platform is an important step forward to ensure rapid access to Resolutions and Recommendations so they can be used as effective advocacy tools.” 

- Grethel Aguilar Rojas, Regional Director, IUCN Regional office for México, Central America and the Caribbean (ORMACC)

Resolutions and Recommendations have raised the profile on emerging issues in conservation, such as watersheds, climate change and mangroves. They also laid the foundation for international conservation law such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and helped mobilize action on species and protected areas among others.

As an integral part of the Platform, a system for reporting on the implementation of Resolutions by all IUCN constituencies is already under development. The design of this system will take into account the findings of the recent impact study: “What do IUCN Resolutions achieve?” undertaken as part of the Evaluation of the 2012 World Conservation Congress.

Developed and agreed upon by IUCN’s broad and unique membership from across the world, the Resolutions and Recommendations have strong legitimacy. With better access to IUCN Resolutions and Recommendations, the hope is that they will be used even more to spur action and drive positive change for a just world that values and conserves nature.

Access the IUCN Resolutions and Recommendations Platform here

For more information please contact Constanza Martinez, Deputy Head of the IUCN Global Policy Unit (constanza.martinez@iucn.org).

A quick overview of the Platform

1193 Resolutions and Recommendations, adopted between 1948 and 2012, have been sorted using policy keywords and categorized in terms of geographical scope.

The Platform offers two ways to search Resolutions and Recommendations:

1. Use one or multiple search criteria such as keywords (e.g. climate change, water, marine) or a region (e.g. West Asia, Antarctica, Africa), or the specific Congress/General Assembly, or the Resolution number itself.
2. Do a free text search within the Resolutions PDF documents.