IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

From Barcelona to Jeju: 2012 Congress shall be even better

30 November 2009 | News story

IUCN is striving to make the 2012 World Conservation Congress the best Congress ever. The IUCN Management fully agrees with the findings and recommendations of the external Evaluation of the Barcelona World Conservation Congress and has set up an action plan to address each one.

Both the IUCN Council and the Secretariat have started the process to address each of the 13 recommendations made by the external evaluation company, Universalia, to further improve the Congress. With the selection of Jeju, Republic of Korea, as the Host City for the 2012 Congress, the preparations for the world’s largest and most important conservation event are now taking off.

I am very pleased that almost 4000 participants of the Barcelona Congress have taken the time to share their experiences at the 2008 Congress and given us valuable recommendations to make the next Congress an even better experience for the participants, says Enrique Lahmann, Director of the Constituency Support Group. IUCN has set up a permanent Congress Unit that will be working on this.

To address the issues raised by the evaluation, IUCN has already completed a consultation process with IUCN Council members to identify objectives for the 2012 Congress and has carried out a preliminary analysis of voting and motions sponsorship patterns at the Barcelona Congress.