Motion 036

Operative para 1c of "2020-Res-030-EN Enhancing the resilience of coastal areas in the face of climate change, biodiversity crisis & rapid coastal development" RECOMMENDS that the Director General & Commissions: " support the establishment of a global coastal forum to facilitate establishment of coastal site networks, including World Heritage and Ramsar sites, and development of guidance on conservation management of working coastal wetlands and on restoration of coastal ecosystems".

This has been admirably advanced with the Conference of the World Coastal Forum (WCF) (www.worldcoastalforum.org) held in Yancheng City of China in September 2023 hosted by China's Ministry of Natural Resources, National Forest and Grassland Administration, and People's Government of Jiangsu Province. The WCF Partnership Initiative was launched with 21 international organisations, now increased to 24. This process has been coordinated by the WCF Coordination Group and facilitated by Eco Foundation Global and BirdLife International. An initial focus of WCF has been on delivery of the knowledge products, the first State of the World's Coastal Ecosystem report being developed by IUCN and Ministry of Natural Resources through the National Marine Data and Information Service, and the World Coastal Ecosystem Conservation Toolkit developed by the University of Cambridge supported by Wetlands International.

To reach the next milestones in fulfilling the WCF’s mission, inclusively to facilitate synergistic delivery of coastal ecosystem commitments under Multi-lateral Environmental Agreements and IUCN, more formalised commitments/ support from IUCN is needed, including to help fill the gap in the current programmes of IUCN between terrestrial and marine responsibilities. It is intended that this motion will catalyse the conversations to achieve this, to the benefit of IUCN, IUCN members and coastal ecosystems.