A US$50 million donation as well as new partnerships with companies and industry were announced by the world's largest environmental network as the 60th World Conservation Congress's public session came to an end Oct. 16 in Barcelona, Spain.
Bill Jackson, deputy director general of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which organized the event, said that governments, non-governmental organizations, local communities and business were finally coming together in order to address the issue of biodiversity loss.
"We are starting to see a convergence to face the serious conditions that challenge us," he told journalists before the closing ceremony of the event's forum.
A major commitment for climate change adaptation measures by the MacArthur Foundation was among the main achievements announced by IUCN before the forum closed, as well as a cooperation agreement on biodiversity and sustainability issues between the global environmental network and Spain's fishing federation CEPESCA, the first of its kind for the country's industry. Other donors, including the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, independent grant Global Environment Facility and the Living Oceans Foundation, also announced several million-dollar commitments for species conservation initiatives during the conference public events.
A partnership with satellite mapping program Google Earth was also announced by IUCN as part of a campaign to raise awareness for protected areas.
Sheila Abed, who serves as executive director of the Paraguay-based Environmental Law and Economics Institute and chairs IUCN's commission for environmental law, told journalists that she was enthusiastic about the outcome of the forum.
"This has been the largest conservation gathering that the world has ever seen," she said at a press briefing.
While commending the congress for spotlighting environmental issues, world-acclaimed conservationist and author Tim Flannery said that a global commitment to fight biodiversity loss would benefit people across the planet in many different aspects of their daily lives.
"If we get to protect biodiversity, we get better water quality in the tropics, better soil, and so on," he told reporters attending the forum.
According to the organizers' estimates, more than 8,000 environmental experts as well as government, nonprofit and industry representatives gathered in Barcelona for the World Conservation Congress.
In the days following the closing of the forum, the congress entered its second phase, in which the council's president was to be elected and resolutions to be passed to guide IUCN's work until the next world gathering in four years.
