What is the IUCN World Conservation Congress?

Held every four years, the IUCN World Conservation Congress is the world's largest conservation event bringing together governments, civil society, Indigenous Peoples Organisations, scientists, and business leaders to set the direction of global conservation. The Members' Assembly is IUCN's highest decision-making body, where member organisations vote on conservation and environmental policy, approve IUCN's programme, and elect the IUCN Council.

The 2025 Congress in Abu Dhabi brought together over 10,000 participants from more than 140 countries across seven days, under the theme Powering Transformative Conservation. Members adopted IUCN's 20-year Strategic Vision and a new four-year programme, and approved 148 resolutions shaping the future of global conservation.

A turning point for Indigenous Peoples and IUCN

The 2025 Congress marked a genuine shift, not just in representation, but in authority. For the first time in Congress history, all 41 Indigenous leaders from IUCN's Indigenous member organisations participated in person, engaging in decision-making, voting, and shaping the Union's future direction.

The World Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Nature and the Indigenous Peoples Pavilion brought together over 120 Indigenous leaders and representatives from 68 countries, spanning all seven sociocultural regions of the world. Guided by shared responsibility to land, water, and life itself, these leaders created spaces rooted in dialogue, traditional knowledge, and spiritual and cultural strength.

These were not symbolic moments. They were living expressions of Indigenous leadership reshaping conservation, setting the tone, guiding the direction, and shifting the paradigm of global biodiversity action.

Two Indigenous leaders were elected to the IUCN Council at this Congress — strengthening Indigenous voice and decision-making at the highest level of the Union. I am honoured to be one of them.

My role

I was elected to the IUCN Council as Councillor for Oceania at the 2025 Congress in Abu Dhabi.

The IUCN Council is responsible for governing the Union between Congresses, implementing Members' Assembly decisions, overseeing IUCN's strategic direction, and ensuring accountability to its members. As Councillor for Oceania, I carry the interests and voices of the Pacific into IUCN's highest governing body.

Oceania is one of the most biodiverse and most vulnerable regions on the planet. Pacific Island peoples have governed ocean and land territories for millennia. We hold irreplaceable knowledge, bear the sharpest consequences of climate change and biodiversity loss, and have been underrepresented in the global governance systems meant to address these crises. That is what I am there to change.

What comes next?

The 2025 Congress marks the beginning of a new chapter.

In the years ahead, the work includes growing Indigenous membership within IUCN, scaling up direct investment in Indigenous territories, and ensuring Indigenous rights and knowledge guide global biodiversity and climate policy, from CBD to UNFCCC and beyond.

Panama has been selected as the host country for the next IUCN World Protected and Conserved Areas Congress in September 2027, the world's premier global forum for protected and conserved areas. I am have been appointed as a of the International Steering Committee for this Congress, working to ensure Indigenous peoples are co-leaders of the agenda, not just participants brought in after the direction has been set.

I have also been appointed as the Chair of the IUCN Governance and Constituency Committee.

To learn more about the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2025: Visit iucncongress2025.org

To learn more about IUCN's work with Indigenous Peoples: Follow @iucn_ips on Instagram