IUCN World Conservation Congress

The 6^th IUCN World Conservation Congress was held from 1-10 September in Hawai’i (USA). Harry Jonas launched the first draft of the Conservation Standards at an event co-hosted with Gina Cosentina, which was attended by the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples and the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, among others. As a Co-Chair of the IUCN Task Force on Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs), he also presented on early guidance on OECMs at an event hosted at the Protected Planet Pavilion. A number of important resolutions were adopted at the Congress’s Assembly, including on: a) recognition and respect of indigenous peoples’ and community conserved territories and areas (ICCAs) overlapped by protected areas, and b) Enabling the Whakatane Mechanism to contribute to conservation though securing communities’ rights.