The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) met last week in Barcelona for the World Conservation Congress, a meeting that takes place every four years. During that meeting, an impressive list of monetary commitments from non-profits and business organizations came forward. Here’s a sampling:
- The MacArthur Foundation will invest $50 million in climate change mitigation and adaptation
- The Mohammad Bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund will invest Euros 25 million for worldwide biodiversity
- The Alcoa Foundation announced a $9 million five-year extension of its Sustainability Fellows Programme
- France committed €7 million to renew its support for IUCN’s programme 2009-2012
- Multiple donors launched Phase Two of the Water and Nature Initiative to improve river basin management
- With Nokia and WWF, IUCN will continue the social platform network, Connect2Earth, to engage youth
- With ENERGIA, IUCN will improve women’s access to electricity and reduce dependence on biofuels
In addition, many countries made commitments to long-term conservation goals:
- Francophone governments will better integrate biodiversity issues into their development policy
- Russia pledged to protect 80 million new hectares
- Sumatran provinces agreed to stop clearing old-growth forests
- The Government of Paraguay announced zero net deforestation by 2020
- Regional heads of state agreed to a summit at Manado, Sulawesi next May to launch the Coral Triangle Initiative to protect the world’s richest coral reefs
There were also a few mapping technology related announcements from the event:
- With Google, the IUCN launched an interactive map of marine protected areas
- With National Geographic and the UN Foundation, the IUCN established the first long-term streaming system that connects anyone, anywhere, to a coral reef in Belize
