Skip to main content
Blog 02 Oct, 2025

Reimagining Conservation with CEESP at 2025 IUCN World Conservation Congress

At this year’s IUCN World Conservation Congress (WCC), the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP) brings forward not only events, but a movement that has been quietly gaining momentum: Reimagining Conservation.

content hero image
Photo: Photo by Mongkon Duangkhiew on Pexels

CEESP, a vibrant network of over 1,700 experts from diverse fields and communities, sits at the intersection of conservation, justice, and human well-being. Its work is grounded in the recognition that how we conserve matters just as much as what we conserve. That belief is embodied in the Reimagining Conservation Pavilion, co-curated by CEESP and peer organizations as a space for inclusive dialogue, creativity, and collective courage (check the Pavilion Blog to access the programme).

At the Reimagining Conservation Pavilion (Oct 9–13), visitors will encounter sessions on more-than-human relationships, conservation data justice, historic redress, Indigenous-led governance, and financing transformation – each inviting us to question inherited paradigms and imagine new ones. CEESP has nurtured this movement by amplifying voices too often sidelined, encouraging deep listening, and offering alternative visions rooted in care, equity, and plural ways of knowing.

Beyond the Pavilion, CEESP leaders will host and speak at over a dozen sessions across the WCC, covering themes like conflict-sensitive conservation, safeguarding environmental human rights, and advancing Indigenous governance across borders. From speed learning events to fishbowl discussions and thematic panels, CEESP members are weaving their expertise through every corner of the congress.

As one contributor to Policy Matters, CEESP’s journal, puts it: “Reimagining conservation is not a technical fix. It is a call for bold paradigm shifts… a movement built from the ground up.”

Whether you are attending a panel on Indigenous governance or sipping tea at the Wellbeing Circle, you can find CEESP at the heart of WCC’s transformative pulse. Join us in weaving a future where many worlds – and many voices – can thrive.

 

Don’t miss a session – check and download the CEESP Journey at WCC:

 

 

Disclaimer
Opinions expressed in posts featured on any Crossroads or other blogs and in related comments are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of IUCN or a consensus of its Member organisations.

IUCN moderates comments and reserves the right to remove posts that are deemed inappropriate, commercial in nature or unrelated to blog posts.