Listening to the silent majority: Citizens’ Assemblies of IUCN Members to inform IUCN policy development

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12/10/2025
14:00 - 15:30
Hall 4C: Session Room 3 , Hybrid
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.
Organised by
IUCN Council

Speaker

Speaker Bibiana SUCRE SMITH

Directora Ejecutiva, Provita

Speaker Peter COCHRANE

Councillor, TierraMar Ltd

Speaker Nicholas MACFARLANE

Head of Conservation Science & Technology, IUCN Secretariat

Speaker Hilde EGGERMONT

AG INBO / IUCN Vice President, Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek

Speaker Andrés RODRÍGUEZ ZUMBADO

Scientific Associate, IUCN

Moderator

Speaker Bibiana SUCRE SMITH

Directora Ejecutiva, Provita