10/10/2025
14:00 - 15:30
CR A-B: Forum - Session Room 4
, Hybrid (onsite with livestreaming)
Session with interpretation
Why attend
Anyone interested in policy development on challenging and polarised conservation issues will benefit from participating in this world café. It will share insights on the recent convening of an IUCN Citizens’ Assembly on Synthetic Biology in relation to Nature Conservation, and brainstorm future applications of Citizens’ Assemblies of IUCN Members.
Session Description
IUCN has a long history of enabling participatory policy development for conservation and sustainable development. However, this has proven challenging regarding issues which are already polarised across the conservation community, where debates are dominated by loud voices from opposing perspectives (see eg www.doi.org/10.1017/S0030605317001557). Mandated to draft an IUCN Policy on Synthetic Biology in relation to Nature Conservation, IUCN therefore pioneered convening a “Citizens’ Assembly” of IUCN Members within the inclusive and participatory process mandated for implementation of IUCN Resolution WCC-2020-Res-123. Citizens’ Assemblies have been convened with a number of countries in recent years to advance policy development for polarised issues, but this is one of the first applications of the tool at the global level. This world café session will share lessons from the IUCN Res123 Citizens’ Assembly (https://engage.iucn.org/topic/recommendations-iucn-citizens-assembly-synthetic-biology-relation-nature-conservation) and explore possible future applications of the technique to inform participatory policy development on other issues (eg geoengineering) throughout IUCN.