(MENAFN- Mid-East Info) Abu Dhabi, October 2025 - H.E. Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, President of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), convened governments, Indigenous leaders, UN System representatives, grassroots advocates, scientists, youth representatives, and partners from across the global conservation community - including H.E. Surangel Whipps Jr., President of Palau - for Nature's Promise for Climate and People, a high-level dialogue held in Abu Dhabi at the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2025.

The session explored how nature, climate, and people can be more deeply integrated in the global agenda, and how the conservation community can do more to help bridge the gap between climate ambition and implementation.

“IUCN President HE Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak brought us together for a refreshingly unscripted and honest exchange,” said H.E. Surangel Whipps Jr., President of Palau.“Participants spoke openly about both the challenges and the opportunities ahead for conservation - and about how, together, we can do more to turn ambition into action.”

The dialogue revalidated nature's essential role in addressing the climate crisis - and the conservation community's commitment to step up, deliver more, and close the gap between global ambition and action for climate and people.

The discussion invited participants to collaborate in shaping a concise and unified message - Nature's Promise for Climate and People - that will continue to evolve in the lead-up to COP30 in Belém, Brazil. This message aims to represent the collective voice of the conservation community and emphasise that nature must remain central to climate solutions and to the wellbeing of people everywhere.

“This dialogue reflects the very essence of IUCN,” said IUCN President H.E. Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak.“As the world's largest and most diverse environmental network, IUCN brings together governments, Indigenous peoples, scientists, civil society, youth, and business - all voices united by a shared purpose to bridge the climate and nature agendas and deliver real progress for people and planet.”

Throughout the dialogue, conservation was framed as a sacred duty rooted in Indigenous wisdom and lived through equitable, culturally grounded policies. Speakers emphasised empowering local communities and youth, recognising Indigenous knowledge as science, integrating climate–nature solutions, valuing ecosystem services, and ensuring inclusive decision-making - all with urgency, practical action, and hope.

Discussions also underlined the need to close the global finance gap for nature, currently estimated at more than USD $700 billion annually, and to encourage business and financial institutions to invest in ecosystems as essential assets for stability, resilience, and shared prosperity.

“When policy wavers and politics delay, finance and business can still lead - turning promises into protection, and pledges into progress,” said H.E. Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak.

Reflecting on the day's exchange, Dr. Sylvia Earle, IUCN Patron of Nature, spoke of the unique opportunity of this moment - one defined by unprecedented knowledge, technological capability, and the chance to act decisively for the planet.

Other distinguished participants included Achim Steiner, former Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme; Dr. David Obura, Chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES); and Maria Soledad Rojas, community leader with the Chilean NGO Fundación Entorno Natural, representing grassroots voices from local communities, and Puyr Tembé, Indigenous leader and President of the Federation of Indigenous Peoples of Pará, Brazil..

In closing, Razan Al Mubarak reaffirmed the role of IUCN and its Members in bridging the climate, biodiversity, and development agendas:“Together, we can deliver on nature's promise - for climate, for people, and for future generations. Let the message we send from Abu Dhabi travel to Belém and beyond.”

The Nature's Promise for Climate and People message will be further developed through consultations with IUCN Constituents and partners in the months ahead, contributing to the global dialogue on nature-based solutions and climate ambition at COP30.

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