UAE to host World Conservation Congress of IUCN in 2025

New Delhi: United Arab Emirates, (UAE) has won the bid to host the World Conservation Congress of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2025 in Abu Dhabi.

The Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) submitted the bid on behalf of Abu Dhabi and the UAE government said, Abu Dhabi Media office (ADMO).

Chairman of EAD, Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayad Al Nahyan said, “Winning the bid to host the IUCN Congress in 2025 is significant and a reflection of the vision of our President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. It will be an opportunity to showcase UAE’s conservation leadership in protecting and restoring endangered species, both in the country and globally.

“We will make the IUCN 2025 Congress one of the most impactful, effective, and decisive congresses to date. We will work with the conservation community to protect our planet to avert biodiversity and climate crises,” he said.

The (IUCN) Council is chaired by the president and consists of elected members from across all the regions as well as a Chair of Commissions and is the body responsible for the oversight and general control of all IUCN affairs.

UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment, Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri affirmed that the selection of Abu Dhabi as the host city for the 2025 International Union for Conservation of Nature World Conference is another honour added to the UAE’s record full of accomplishments, particularly in the field of environmental, natural, and climate preservation, during the Year of Sustainability.

She further said, ” Our role as host of this year’s Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) reiterates the UAE’s influential position as a leading global partner in steering efforts to tackle some of the most pressing challenges of our times climate change, environmental preservation, and the prevention of natural resource wastage.”

The IUCN WCC 2025 will be held in Abu Dhabi in October 2025 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC).
The IUCN Congress, where IUCN Members set the global conservation agenda by voting on motions and guide the Secretariat’s work by passing resolutions and the IUCN Programme.

The last Congress was held in Marseille, France in September 2021.

The IUCN WCC in 2025 in Abu Dhabi is expected to bring an estimated 10,000-15,000 delegates from over 160 countries across the globe and will be an event which could galvanise conservation actions to protect our planet, amid local and global challenges.