IUCN Congress in Abu Dhabi adopts 20-year conservation vision and 148 resolutions

**The IUCN World Conservation Congress concluded in Abu Dhabi, adopting a 20-year Strategic Vision, a four-year programme, 148 resolutions and the Ambitious Abu Dhabi Action Plan. The outcomes set the global biodiversity policy direction that will shape nature-related expectations for Indian companies ahead of COP30. **

The IUCN World Conservation Congress concluded in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, bringing together more than 10,000 on-site and online participants from governments, civil society, indigenous organisations and businesses. Members unanimously approved a 20-year Strategic Vision and a four-year programme, adopting 148 resolutions including the Union's first policy on synthetic biology. The Congress introduced the Ambitious Abu Dhabi Action Plan, urging coordinated action toward a net-zero, resilient and nature-positive future at UNFCCC COP30 across five strategic areas, and welcomed over 100 new members including six sovereign states.

Governments, businesses and conservation organisations globally are affected by the new policy framework, which underpins multilateral environmental agreements going forward. Indian companies with nature dependencies and biodiversity exposure face mounting expectations as the Action Plan pushes for accelerated action toward the 2030 targets. Scientists delivered updates to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, revealing that climate change now threatens 43 percent of all natural World Heritage sites, signalling intensifying global scrutiny of corporate impacts on nature and ecosystems.

Indian businesses should monitor how the Ambitious Abu Dhabi Action Plan and its five strategic areas feed into negotiations at UNFCCC COP30 and beyond, where nature-positive commitments are expected to advance. Companies should track the 148 adopted resolutions and the new synthetic biology policy for emerging compliance and disclosure expectations. Entities reliant on natural assets should assess biodiversity dependencies against the 2030 targets the Congress reaffirmed and prepare for stronger alignment between conservation science and policy implementation.

Key figure — Resolutions adopted: 148, plus a 20-year Strategic Vision