In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the French government have announced that they will postpone the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2020.
The Congress, which was due to take place from 11th to 19th June 2020 in Marseille, is now scheduled from 7th to 15th January 2021.[1]
Held every four years, the IUCN World Conservation Congress is an event which brings together the global nature conservation community to determine the most pressing issues in terms of nature conservation. The congress allows its 1400 members to set the global conservation agenda for the next four years.
The French government and IUCN remain fully committed to making the World Conservation Congress a major event for nature conservation and the development of a new global post-2020 biodiversity framework
According to the IUCN “The French government and IUCN remain fully committed to making the Congress a major event for nature conservation and the development of a new global post-2020 biodiversity framework”.
As a reminder, the IUCN is an international organisation that operates in the field of nature conservation. It is involved in data gathering and analysis and is best known for compiling and publishing the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, which assesses the conservation status of species worldwide.
[1] Since writing this article, the French government has once again announced that the conference will be postponed past January 2021. According to the French Ministry of environment, the new dates for the meeting in Marseille will be announced soon.