UICN - Union internationale pour la conservation de la nature

Charting IUCN’s course for the next four years

14 September 2012 | Article

Today, at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, the Members Assembly approved the new IUCN Programme for the next four years, effectively defining where the Union's efforts will be directed in the coming years.

The IUCN Programme 2013-16 is driven by two features of life today: Global production and consumption patterns are destroying our life support system – nature – at persistent and dangerously high rates. And people, communities, governments and private actors are under-using the power of nature and the solutions it can provide to global challenges such as climate change, food security, social and economic development. IUCN calls these nature-based solutions.

The new IUCN Programme aims to mobilize and unite communities working for biodiversity conservation, sustainable development and poverty reduction in common efforts to halt biodiversity loss and apply nature-based solutions.

It builds on IUCN’s niche as the world’s authority on biodiversity conservation, nature-based solutions and related environmental governance and has three Programme Areas:

Valuing and Conserving Nature enhances IUCN’s heartland work on biodiversity conservation, emphasizing both tangible and intangible values of nature.

Effective and Equitable Governance of Nature’s Use consolidates IUCN’s work on people-nature relations, rights and responsibilities, and the political economy of nature.

Deploying Nature-based Solutions to Global Challenges in Climate, Food and Development expands IUCN’s work on nature’s contribution to tackling problems of sustainable development, particularly in climate change, food security and social and economic development.