The following article, written by Juliette Planes, is part of a series of reflections on the upcoming International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) World Conservation Congress to be held in Abu Dhabi, October 2025. The series examines proposed resolutions by the Global Center for Environmental Legal Studies (GCELS) at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University on a variety of environmental issues to be decided at the Congress. The articles in this series were developed as part of Professor Achinthi Vithanage’s guided research program for Pace | Haub Environmental Law students.
Gender equality is a key pillar of sustainable development, yet in the realm of conservation, its implementation remains inconsistent. The upcoming IUCN World Conservation Congress presents a crucial opportunity to bridge the gap between policy and practice. What began as the Motion on Strengthening Gender Equality and Addressing Gender-Based Violence in IUCN Conservation Projects has evolved through collaboration into something far more comprehensive and impactful.
From Original Vision to Collaborative Transformation
The power of collaboration in international environmental law has never been more evident than in the successful merger of two complementary motions on gender equality in biodiversity conservation. The original motion, “Strengthening Gender Equality and Addressing Gender-Based Violence in IUCN Conservation Projects,” focused on enhancing clarity, transparency, and financial accountability in gender integration across IUCN projects.
Through collaborative dialogue with the Ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires étrangères (France), this motion was merged with their complementary proposal, creating Motion 051: “Mainstreaming gender equality in biodiversity policies, programmes, actions and funding” – a comprehensive resolution that strengthens IUCN’s commitment to gender-responsive conservation.
The merger process was remarkably smooth, using the French ministry’s motion as the foundation while incorporating the most critical elements from the original proposal. This collaborative approach demonstrates the strength of multilateral cooperation in addressing complex environmental and social challenges.
Why Gender Equality Matters in Conservation
Research has shown that integrating gender considerations in conservation projects leads to better environmental and social outcomes. Women and marginalized groups, including Indigenous Peoples and LGBTQIA+ individuals, are often at the forefront of environmental stewardship. However, they continue to face barriers to participation in decision-making and leadership roles.
Gender-based violence (GBV) is an overlooked issue in environmental projects. Land conflicts, resource scarcity, and climate change exacerbate gender inequalities and increase vulnerabilities to violence. Without specific safeguards, conservation initiatives risk perpetuating these injustices.
While IUCN has made strides in gender equality through its 2018 Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Policy, challenges remain in implementation and accountability. Reports indicate that only 25% of surveyed environmental projects currently integrate GBV considerations.
The evolved motion aims to address these gaps by ensuring that gender considerations are embedded at every stage of project planning, execution, and evaluation. It also highlights the need for an intersectional approach that recognizes and addresses these disparities. The evolved motion calls for comprehensive measures that proactively address GBV, ensuring that conservation projects do not inadvertently harm vulnerable communities.
By adopting Motion 051, IUCN will reinforce its leadership in gender-responsive conservation and set a precedent for other environmental organizations to follow. Strengthening financial accountability, improving data collection, and addressing GBV will enhance the effectiveness of conservation projects, making them more inclusive and sustainable.
Enhanced Scope and Impact
The merged motion significantly expands the original scope, moving beyond IUCN-specific projects to encompass the entire biodiversity conservation ecosystem. Key improvements include:
Broader Institutional Reach: While the original motion focused primarily on IUCN projects, Motion 051 extends its call to action to States, public and private decision-makers, funders, and practitioners across all sectors.
Strengthened International Framework Alignment: The merged motion explicitly connects to the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, including Target 23, and the CBD Gender Plan of Action, positioning the resolution within established international commitments.
Enhanced Intersectional Approach: The final version recognizes that women’s and girls’ experiences are shaped by intersecting identities, including age, class, ethnicity, and disability, providing a more nuanced understanding of gender equality challenges.
Institutional Accountability Mechanisms: Motion 051 includes specific requests for the Director General to ensure IUCN’s contribution to implementing the CBD Gender Plan of Action and report on progress at the next World Conservation Congress.
Critical Provisions for Real Change
The merged motion maintains the original’s emphasis on concrete action while expanding implementation pathways. The original motion proposed several key provisions that have been strengthened in the merged version:
Mandatory Data Collection: Systematic integration of gender-specific indicators and gender-disaggregated data collection, including on gender-based violence, across all monitoring and evaluation frameworks. This builds on the original call for mandatory gender indicators in all IUCN projects, with enhanced focus on tracking gender-based violence prevention and gender parity in leadership roles.
Financial Accountability: Gender-responsive budgeting and earmarked funds ensuring equal access to resources, services, and technologies. The original motion’s call for at least 10% of project budgets to be allocated to gender-responsive initiatives under IUCN’s Gender Equality Marker framework has been expanded to encompass broader funding mechanisms.
Post-Project Impact Assessment: The merged motion maintains the original’s emphasis on establishing mechanisms to analyze gender impacts beyond project completion, ensuring long-term accountability.
Institutional Transformation: Development of gender-responsive organizational action plans with mandatory staff training and capacity building, expanding on the original motion’s focus on capacity building and stakeholder engagement.
Rights-Based Approach: Ensuring full, equitable, inclusive, and gender-responsive participation in policy and decision-making processes.
One of the merged motion’s strongest features is its attention to previously overlooked issues. The emphasis on post-project data collection addresses a significant gap in understanding long-term gender impacts of conservation initiatives. By explicitly calling for data on gender-based violence outcomes, the motion acknowledges that environmental projects can inadvertently perpetuate harm without proper safeguards.
A Model for Collaborative Governance
The merger resulted in an unprecedented coalition of international support, with co-sponsors representing six continents and diverse stakeholder groups:
Government Partners: Including ministries from France, Germany, Spain, and Mexico, demonstrating strong state-level commitment to gender-responsive biodiversity policies.
Civil Society Organizations: From grassroots associations like the Association Sénégalaise des Amis de la Nature (Senegal) to international powerhouses like World Wide Fund for Nature – International (Switzerland).
Regional Diversity: Spanning from Guinea Bissau’s Grupo de Apoio à Educação e Comunicação Ambiental “PALMEIRINHA” to Pakistan’s Trust for Conservation of Coastal Resources, showcasing truly global support.
Specialized Expertise: Including organizations like Women for Conservation (USA), Forest Peoples Programme (UK), and the Margaret Pyke Trust (UK), bringing specialized knowledge on gender and conservation issues.
The success of this merger process offers valuable lessons for international environmental governance. Despite the time constraints that limited extensive consultation with all constituents, the collaborative approach demonstrated that competing visions can be synthesized into stronger, more comprehensive solutions.
The process also highlights the importance of maintaining contributor recognition, with all original sponsors being incorporated into the final co-sponsor list, ensuring that the diverse voices that shaped the motion remain visible and acknowledged.
Looking Forward: Implementation and Impact
As Motion 051 moves toward the e-vote process at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, it represents more than just policy language – it embodies a fundamental shift toward inclusive, intersectional conservation practice. The motion’s success would establish IUCN as a leader in gender-responsive environmental governance, setting precedents for other international organizations.
The comprehensive approach of the merged motion, spanning from local community engagement to international policy frameworks, creates multiple pathways for implementation. Whether through national biodiversity strategies, organizational action plans, or funding mechanisms, the motion provides concrete tools for translating gender equality commitments into conservation practice.
For more information on the merged motion and its implications for gender-responsive biodiversity conservation, stakeholders are encouraged to engage with the ongoing IUCN World Conservation Congress processes and support the implementation of intersectional approaches to environmental protection. For additional context, refer to the Explanatory Memorandum for the original ‘Motion on Strengthening Gender Equality and Addressing Gender-Based Violence in IUCN Conservation Projects’ and explore IUCN’s Gender and Environment Resource Hub.
Public participation remains the cornerstone of international environmental law, and this collaborative motion demonstrates that when diverse voices unite around common goals, transformative change becomes possible. Now is the time to push for gender-equitable conservation policies that leave no one behind.
This publication was created with assistance from AI tools. The content has been reviewed and edited by a human. For more information on the extent and nature of AI usage, please contact the author. For more information on Pace University’s policy on AI, see here.