With a stack of new business cards displaying the title “Extinction Drawdown Research Associate”, vaccination certificate, and extra pens, I was ready to attend my first IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) World Conservation Congress. The Congress is held once every four years and brings together thousands of leaders across governments, indigenous communities, businesses, academia, and NGOs. The goal of this international convening is “conserving the environment and harnessing the solutions nature offers to global challenges.” This year, the Congress had seven main themes of interest: Landscapes, Freshwater, Oceans, Climate Change, Rights and Governance, Economic and Financial Systems, and Knowledge, Innovation and Technology.
I had talks bookmarked, meetings set up, and speakers flagged around conservation technology, addressing the drivers of extinction, and capitalizing on the CBD’s newest framework for conserving biodiversity. I expected plenty of discussion around the post-2020 framework, IUCN’s Red List, summits for local action and youth, and climate change – which I received. What I was not prepared for were the most interesting conversations happening between these grand ceremonies, in smaller networking conversations, over coffee, and while waiting for high-level dialogues to begin. Between each call to action by major conservation players, I witnessed island entities taking initiative, partnership creation around everything from sustainable fisheries to sustainable fashion, and the application of scientific metrics to measure recovery, rather than decline. I may have been drawn in by the headliners, founders, and chairs, but at the end of the day it was the actions of the small yet innovative that truly inspired me to envision what the future of conservation would look like.
Conservation X Labs (CXL) played an active role in this year’s Congress, speaking across Thematic Plenaries, High-Level Dialogues, Exhibition Events, and the Forum Closing.
Alex Dehgan, CXL’s CEO and Co-Founder, spoke on the importance of freshwater systems in maintain life on Earth, as well as the need for active solutions to address drivers and the ways in which CXL harnesses prizes and challenges to address these drivers. He drew on the connections between Artisanal Small-Scale Mining and mercury pollution in the Amazon, as well as microfiber pollution impacting our freshwater systems.
In “Restoring the fabric of nature and humanity – peace, conflict and environment in a post-Covid world” he spoke to his time of working in Afghanistan to build National Parks, and how the biodiversity and beauty of this area’s natural landscapes – and people – are often clouded by their conflicts and the western world’s demands.
Alex Dehgan speaking at the IUCN Form Closing Plenary, Image by Rachel Martin.
In the Forum Closing, he concluded by calling on the need for a solutions-focused future in addressing the drivers of decline by harnessing planetary genius, protecting forgotten ecosystems and people, and called to action protecting our Afghan Environmental Defenders.
Paul Bunje, CXL’s COO/CSO and Co-Founder, spoke as a part of the Reverse the Red Exhibition on targeting the underlying drivers of biodiversity loss and taking the pressures off the places we are trying to protect. He spoke to conservation’s typical approach to address the symptoms of loss, rather than targeting the underlying drivers of extinction, and the need for solutions that match the scale and speed of the loss of biodiversity we are experiencing. He ended by describing Conservation X Labs most recent project endeavor “Drawdown for Extinction” inspired by Project Drawdown, that will evaluate, compare, and rank the most effective and efficient interventions to curb the sixth mass extinction while ensuring global human well-being and planetary health.
Paul Bunje speaking at the IUCN Reverse the Red Exhibition, Image by World Association Zoos & Aquariums.
We also coordinated with amazing actors and colleagues across the conservation field including Island Conservation, NatureServe, Oceanic Society, Beyond Plastic Mediterranean, Species Survival Commission, The Sustainable Angle, Re:wild, and more. We discussed everything from the role of synthetic biology in the conservation technology space, sustainable fashion initiatives, IUCN’s newest Green Status work, and how we all must collectively move past studying the decline of species and actively work to reduce their threats.
As someone who works primarily with data and quantifiable components, the power of the human-dimensions within conservation can easily get lost in my day to day. Frustrations for what we have lost and continue to lose in the face of a biodiversity crisis, were abundantly clear as we continue to set global biodiversity and land preservation targets while overshooting Earth’s nature budget earlier and earlier on a yearly basis. What I didn’t expect was the hope felt for change. The frustration and dire need for action is not lost on me or anyone attending the IUCN WCC, but the hope felt within each audience member, each exhibition booth, and each representative was not something that could be captured by a live-streamed talk or the data analytics.
The hope – and frustrations – felt from the crowd for a more inclusive, more action-oriented, and more successful conservation field should not be ignored, and with the right momentum post-WCC, I know it can prevail. We are not yet at the point of passively watching the world’s biodiversity move toward extinction. The members at the IUCN World Conservation Congress are not yet at that point. Conservation X Labs is not at that point. When we enter these global stages and are disappointed by the lack of extraordinary change and fast action, we must ask ourselves what is missing from these conversations? Who is missing? These pieces – more people, expertise, and planetary genius – are essential to scale the critical solutions that we’re desperately in need of for extinction prevention and the continued hope for a future that we know can exist.
After over a year of online-only connection, seeing and hearing from conservationists around the world was refreshing and inspiring as we work to accomplish post-2020 goals and aspirations. The perspectives, experience, and expertise of many actors – most long considered outside of traditional conservation – will be required to find societal transformations that lead to long-term biodiversity preservation. Human collaboration is at the center of everything we do here at CXL, and we look forward to taking our new connections and tackling the most pressing problems expressed at IUCN’s World Conservation Congress with partnerships and solutions for the planet.
