Water, biodiversity and climate: three components of the living world’s resilience
Messages from the French Water Partnership for the IUCN World Conservation Congress
(October 9-15, 2025, Abu Dhabi)
The IUCN World Conservation Congress, which will be held in Abu Dhabi from October 9 to 15, 2025, is taking place in a global context of accelerating environmental degradation.
However, biodiversity preservation, sustainable water management and socio-ecosystem resilience are effective and interdependent tools for setting our societies on a truly positive path for all life.
The Congress is a pivotal event on the international agenda, building on the momentum created by COP16 of the Convention on Biological Diversity and taking place in the run-up to COP30 of the Framework Convention on Climate Change, where the role of biodiversity and water in adapting to climate change is increasingly being recognized.
As such, it offers a crucial moment for dialog on international biodiversity and climate agendas, consistent with the Nexus approach highlighted by the latest IPBES report (Tackle Together Five Interlinked Global Crises in Biodiversity, Water, Food, Health and Climate Change, December 2024).
The members of the French Water Partnership (FWP) call on the IUCN Secretariat, its expert commissions and all its members to work toward better integrating the link between water, biodiversity, and climate in public policies and international commitments through five priorities:
- Mobilize ambitious funding for biodiversity.
To this end, redirect harmful subsidies to preserve the balance of the water cycle. - Preserve freshwater ecosystems, major centers of biodiversity that often cross boundaries, and strengthen international cooperation around watersheds to maintain water bodies – surface water and groundwater –
and their associated ecosystems in good condition.
To this end, encourage States to accede to the two international conventions on transboundary waters: the 1992 Water Convention and the 1997 UN Watercourses Convention. - Strengthen coordination of the management of inland, coastal and marine waters, , building on the momentum generated at the Third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC-3).
- Build on the principles of IUCN Motion 078 sponsored by the FWP to use agroecology and agroforestry as strategic tools to restore soil’s ecological functions and regulate the water cycle.
- Develop an international framework for the preservation of watershed heads that facilitates the exchange of best practices and the rollout of targeted policies (in accordance with IUCN Motion 021).
▶️ Reed the Messages from the French Water Partnership for the IUCN World Conservation Congress in English here.
Participate in our sessions at the IUCN World Conservation Congress:
Agroecological Nature-based Solutions in Action: Jointly Addressing the Resilience of Water, Soil, Biodiversity and People
Organizers:
In collaboration with:
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From Freshwater Ecosystem Conservation to Green Water Preservation:
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