Reimagining Conservation: A Call to Transform How We Care for the Planet

Devoted entirely to the Reimagining Conservation initiative, this issue explores four transformative dimensions: conservation action, leadership and justice, money and power, and relationships. Together, these themes invite us to rethink not only what conservation looks like, but how and why we do it — and who it ultimately serves.

Born in 2021 as both a question and a commitment, Reimagining Conservation emerged from deep listening — to the land, to communities, and to one another. It recognizes that today’s crises are ecological, political, and cultural, demanding bold paradigm shifts and courageous leadership that center justice, equity, and care as inseparable from environmental action.

In an era of shrinking civic space, growing polarization, and biodiversity collapse, this movement challenges “business-as-usual” approaches and calls for solidarity, humility, and shared responsibility. It is a living, evolving partnership that honors the diversity of knowledge, practice, and perspective — and the conviction that the health of our planet depends as much on justice as it does on biodiversity.

Reimagining Conservation is not just a theme, it’s an invitation to transform how we work, lead, and relate in the pursuit of a more just and thriving planet.

Read Policy Matters Issue 24: https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/Policy-Matters-Issue-24.pdf

Kristen Walker Painemilla and Ameyali Ramos

Chair and Deputy Chair of the IUCN Commission of Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP)

Anastasia Rodopoulou, ENB IISD

Reimagining Conservation: A Call to Transform How We Care for the Planet. Launch of Issue 24 of Policy Matters — the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy’s (CEESP) flagship journal — was launched at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi

Policy Matters, Reimagining Conservation: A Call to Transform How We Care for the Planet. Issue 24 of Policy Matters — the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy’s (CEESP) flagship journal — was launched at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi