IUCN at World Water Week 2025

This session explores the vital role of the hydrological cycle in climate resilience, emphasizing how aquatic ecosystems such as wetlands, rivers, and lakes contribute to climate mitigation through carbon sequestration. Through case studies, it highlights the benefits of green and blue water management in boosting both ecosystem and community resilience, while also addressing the consequences of ecosystem degradation.

Well-functioning, sustainable basin organizations are crucial for governing shared water resources, especially under climate change and growing pressures. This session explores challenges related to legal frameworks, mandates, and financing, fostering knowledge exchange among representatives from the Danube, Mekong, Nile, and Okavango basins to strengthen organizational effectiveness and resilience.

This session focuses on best practices that have facilitated cooperation between States during severe periods of drought and low flows in transboundary basins. It shares experiences on how to effectively prevent conflicts and promote sustainable development in climate-vulnerable regions.

Drop by the Netherlands Booth for a relaxed gathering of the Source-to-Sea Action Platform community! Whether you’re a long-standing partner, newly joined, or simply curious about getting involved, this is a chance to meet friendly faces, share ideas, and spark new collaborations. Enjoy short, inspiring testimonies from partners on their source-to-sea journeys, exchange experiences, and discover how we can work together to create lasting impact from source to sea.

Cities are at the heart of global water, biodiversity, and climate challenges. This dynamic session explores transformative urban resilience strategies that integrate water management, biodiversity conservation, and climate adaptation with a strong focus on equity and inclusion. Bold ideas, real-world solutions, high-impact discussions, to inspire action for thriving, resilient cities.

The Freshwater Challenge (FWC) is a country-led global initiative for freshwater ecosystem protection and restoration. This session will highlight inspiring showcases by member countries and multi-stakeholder engagement, accelerating action and strengthening the freshwater-climate resilience nexus to drive impactful, scalable solutions for water security, biodiversity conservation, and climate mitigation.

Transboundary water cooperation is generally acknowledged as beneficial for water, ecosystems, and the people, communities, and countries. However, those benefits of cooperation are often insufficiently clear and not effectively communicated. This session attempts to change this as it aims at raising awareness for the importance of identifying, measuring, and communicating cooperation benefits and exchanging experiences on how best to do this.

This session explores the interplay between hydropower and nature-based solutions within the water-energy-food-ecosystem (WEFE) nexus, addressing ecosystem services, climate risks, floods, and droughts in Asia. It emphasizes land use planning at the river basin or regional scale, governance, and financing to balance WEFE trade-offs while protecting biodiversity and vulnerable communities.

Biodiversity can be a driver for improved climate adaptation if we consider it as a human right. Adaptation solutions often ignore the need for ecologically biodiverse water quality, concentrating on clean, sterile water management. To what extent can a recognition of biodiversity as a human right promote more sustainable solutions?

This session explores how science diplomacy can bridge gaps in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) by fostering shared scientific understanding and enabling joint, evidence-based action. It highlights urgent needs for regional cooperation to address cascading water-related risks and their impact on communities and ecosystems. The session will present cutting-edge insights, identify knowledge and coordination gaps, and showcase innovative solutions such as integrated risk management, early warning systems, open data platforms, nature-based solutions, and inclusive approaches. It aims to spotlight practical pathways to institutionalize science diplomacy and mobilize resources to strengthen transboundary water resilience in the HKH region.

This session explores the crucial link between effective water management and biodiversity conservation, highlighting how abundant, well-managed water resources support thriving ecosystems—from tropical forests to wetlands. It emphasizes the integration of indigenous knowledge and community-led practices as powerful tools for sustaining biodiversity and ecosystem services. The session will feature innovative water stewardship approaches, spotlighting both theoretical frameworks and practical, place-based experiences.

This session explores how the source-to-sea (S2S) approach enhances climate resilience by addressing interconnected environmental challenges. It emphasizes holistic water management, water security, and coastal ecosystem risks, showcasing solutions like nature-based approaches and transboundary collaboration. Examples of S2S implementation and policy synergies will illustrate scalable interventions for improved climate adaptation.

This final session brings together insights from the seminar to shape a unified, forward-looking agenda that integrates climate, biodiversity, and water priorities ahead of the 2026 UN Conference. Designed as an interactive, intergenerational workshop, the session emphasizes the central role of the water cycle in connecting climate and biodiversity goals. Participants will collaboratively develop a strategic framework and identify priority actions, with a focus on aligning global commitments and enhancing collaboration across sectors and generations.

As climate change intensifies, cooperation over shared waters must adapt and address new challenges to deliver tangible results and positive impacts. This session explores how four fundamental dimensions; data sharing, decision support technology, financing, and climate-resilient infrastructure, can turn commitments into solutions, showcasing lessons from regions where crisis is driving innovation and trust-building.

Mother nature is our strongest asset for protecting our cultural heritage, considering both constructed and natural infrastructure, and their importance to protect the human rights of future generations. This session looks at the ways that governments and policy makers can broaden their outlook.

This session explores the building blocks to accelerating drought resilience, including policy, funding, tools and technology, and builds awareness on the need to adopt bottom-up approaches in drought risk mitigation. Presenters will share outputs from the UNCCD COP16 and opportunities for engagement between now and COP17 in 2026.