The WCC is the highest authority of IUCN structure. As the general assembly of IUCN members, it takes place every three to four years; by law, all members of IUCN have the right to attend the Congress. The Congress combines the business of the Union with the technical conservation forum and provides an opportunity for sharing information and experiences among IUCN’s worldwide constituency of members, commission members, stake- holders, and partner organizations. The Congress encompasses three principal elements: conducting the business of the Union, assessing the work of IUCN commissions, and taking stock of conservation efforts (IUCN 2003:7). In her presidential address at the third World Congress in 2004, Yolanda Kakabadse stated that each Congress marks a new wave in conservation thinking and practice. It provides a place to contribute to and to learn from forward thinking about conservation and sustainable development. IUCN is a union of individual organizations with a collective identity. By bringing members,
4.4 The World Conservation Congress (WCC) 39 commissions, and the broader IUCN constituency together, the Congress helps confirm and renew the Union’s unique personality. Talking to members suggests that the meeting is as valuable to individuals as it is to organizations.
The WCC is the place for people to learn and share information; a place to engage in lively debate and to shape conservation policy for the coming years. The WCC is an event where IUCN members can renew old friendships and establish new ones, and is an opportunity for networking and initiating partnerships. Perhaps most importantly, it is a place to be inspired and to inspire others with new ideas and activities for the future of our planet (IUCN 2003:4).
The WCC of IUCN is one of the largest meetings of conservation experts in the world. The main objective of the Congress is to prepare the plans and policies of IUCN and to elect the Council. In the Congress, members adopt resolutions that address conservation issues of global concern, institutional policies, calls for actions, institutional governance, and administrative poli- cies. The resolutions adopted at a Congress determine IUCN’s new programs and strategies for four years.
The main objectives of IUCN resolutions are first to draw the attention of the member governments to give the priority to the areas focused on and passed in the resolutions and second to provide the policy directives to address the highlighted issues. The resolutions also play an important role in packaging conservation agendas in a way that is helpful when preparing national funding proposals. IUCN has a strong presence in all international forums on conservation and in the United Nations; therefore, the voices documented in IUCN resolutions have global impacts.
The WCC proposes and approves a variety of motions such as IUCN- directed motions, which become resolutions when adopted. The manner in which motions have been handled in IUCN has evolved. In 1950, 1954, and 1958, technical meetings convened during which motions were prepared for consideration at General Assemblies held in 1952, 1956, and 1960. This pat- tern of alternating technical and General Assembly meetings every two years was not continued after 1960 (IUCN 2003:29–30). Motions handled include governance motions, policy motions, program motions, third-party motions, policy-relevant motions, and species-, site-, and event-specific motions. There is a statutory requirement which governs the resolutions process within WCC, where any member eligible to vote can propose a motion. Motions must be on a topic not addressed in the previous resolutions or recommendations.
Motions should be submitted to the Director General by post, fax, or email,
40 The IUCN – An International Organization for Environment Conservation and those motions approved by the Resolution Working Group will be trans- lated into IUCN’s official languages and circulated to the members (IUCN 2003:30).
The heart of the IUCN governance process lies in the decisions made by the Union members at their business assemblies during the World Con- gresses. It is kind of parallel session organized by the commissions. The procedure for reaching these decisions depends on the drafting, filing, and adoption of motions that become formal resolutions, recommendations, and program amendments. Since the founding of the General Assembly in 1948 in Fontainebleau, France, to the second IUCN-WCC in 2000 in Amman, Jordan, 1,020 resolutions and recommendations have been adopted by its members.
The founding assembly adopted one resolution which called on UNESCO to promote environmental protection while at the Amman Congress in 2000, 112 resolutions and recommendations were adopted addressing policies, programs, governance, and a variety of conservation issues of global concern.
Over the years, IUCN’s motions have had substantial influence in guiding the development of the organization as well as heralding key milestones in the evolution and development of the conservation community. As early as 1952 at the second assembly, our members adopted Resolution 2.22, which framed core values that have to this day guided the development and actions of the Union (IUCN 2003).
In 1963, the members adopted Recommendation 8.05 which called for the drafting of an international convention that would establish regulations for export, transit, and import of rare or threatened wildlife species. This led to the establishment of the CITES in 1973. In several motions beginning in 1972 (11.03), the IUCN’s members have called on each other to ratify and support the Ramsar Convention. Resolution 11.15 (the protection of wide-ranging species) led to the adoption of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) in 1983 and an agreement to protect polar bears by the Arctic nations, which was adopted in November of the same year. In 1990, the members expressed their support for the establishment of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (18.28) and the Convention on Climate Change (18.22), which was subsequently adopted at the Rio Earth Summit two years later. In recent years, beginning in 1994, members have called for trade agreements such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to take account of environmental issues.
Regarding key conservation issues, a total of 18 motions have been adopted concerning dams, the first being in 1952, which called attention to the threat dams pose to protected areas. Mining and extractive industries have
4.6 The Council 41 been targeted in 21 resolutions and recommendations that have been adopted since 1978. The earliest motions focused primarily on oceanic mining, while those adopted in more recent Assemblies focus on mining in protected areas (IUCN 2003). There are more than 700 resolutions of global importance and these listed above are only few among them in which I was also involved in the voting process.