10/10/2025
15:30 - 16:10
Learning Zone Pavilion: Publications Hub
, Onsite
Session with interpretation
Why attend
Vegetable oil crops are central to global food systems and biodiversity challenges. This session seeks to answer a critical question: how do we truly drive behaviour change? Through expert insights and real-world experiences—including the IUCN Vegetable Oils Task Force—we will explore how research and communication shift practices toward sustainability.
Session Description
Vegetable oil crops are both essential and controversial. While some impact over hundreds of threatened species, others provide crucial habitat.Achieving a sustainable future requires behaviour change at multiple levels—from policy to consumer choices. But how does robust research truly lead to behaviour and systems change?
Despite extensive knowledge, change in this sector remains slow. Is it due to a lack of public interest? The complexity of global supply chains? Competing sustainability priorities? A failure in research communication? This session will explore these questions, drawing from the IUCN Vegetable Oils Task Force’s experience in publishing groundbreaking research. We will discuss what makes scientific communication effective, whether research alone is enough to drive change, and what lessons can be applied to other agricultural and food systems. The insights from the session also provide a pivotal space to reassess the Task Force’s post-2026 role and refine its research agenda.
Partners
Species Survival Commission
Commission on Ecosystem Management
Commission on Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy
Headquarters