WCS to Spotlight Nature Crime, One Health, Wildlife Trade, and More at IUCN World Conservation Congress in October

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Newswise — NEW YORK, NY, September 4, 2025 — The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) today announced its top priorities for the IUCN World Conservation Congress to be held October 9–15, 2025, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. A strong WCS delegation of scientists and policy experts will advance key conservation priorities, including international wildlife trade, One Health, nature crime, synthetic biology, and the need for renewed global environmental cooperation.

WCS will also back the re-election of Madhu Rao as Chair of the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA). Rao is running unopposed and brings decades of leadership in advancing protected and conserved areas globally—including toward the 30×30 goal. Her continued leadership underscores WCS’s commitment to protected and conserved areas as essential to halting biodiversity loss and tackling the climate crisis. 

WCS’s key priorities at IUCN this fall include:

Nature Crime: WCS, a co-lead on a major motion and events addressing nature crime, will use the Congress to advocate for stronger action on wildlife trafficking, illegal fisheries, illegal deforestation and timber trade, and other forms of crimes that affect the environment. The issue features prominently in IUCN’s 4-year program and 20-year strategic vision, and WCS will join at least three events on the topic.

One Health: A WCS-led motion recognizing the interconnected health of people, animals, and ecosystems is expected to be adopted by IUCN members. The motion reinforces One Health as a pillar of IUCN’s next four-year program. WCS experts will join global partners in a forum event to discuss ways forward for this integrative approach.

International Pet Trade: WCS is leading a motion addressing the unsustainable and often illegal international pet trade—a rapidly growing threat to wildlife. The issue will be debated in Congress and featured in an official Forum event. WCS will press for strong commitments to reduce this harmful trade in wild-caught birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, and help ensure that any trade is legal, sustainable, beneficial to local communities, and poses no risk of pathogen spillover. The timing of this debate comes just weeks before the CITES CoP20 in Uzbekistan.

Multilateralism: In an era of retreat from global institutions, WCS will call for renewed commitment to environmental multilateralism. The organization will use the Congress platform to stress that conservation challenges—including biodiversity loss, over-exploitation of wildlife and wild places, climate change, and illegal wildlife trade—require global solutions and collaboration, not isolation. 

Synthetic Biology: WCS supports the proposed IUCN policy on synthetic biology—developed through years of collaboration (led at WCS by Dr. Elizabeth Bennett)—as practical, science-based, and flexible. While the topic is expected to be controversial, WCS urges delegates to adopt a policy grounded in rigorous scientific and ethical standards. 

Said Dr. Susan Lieberman, WCS Vice President for International Policy and a current elected member of the IUCN Council, “The IUCN Congress is a critical moment to push for transformative action for nature. From closing wildlife trade loopholes to embedding One Health into global conservation strategies, WCS is proud to lead and support motions that reflect real, science-based solutions to the biodiversity crisis.”

WCS’s team in Abu Dhabi will represent a wide range of expertise across its global programs—spanning International Policy, Species, Marine, Markets, Rights and Communities, and Science—along with conservation leaders from WCS field offices in Africa, Brazil, Central America, Cuba, Europe, and beyond.

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Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
WCS combines the power of its zoos and an aquarium in New York City and a Global Conservation Program in more than 50 countries to achieve its mission to save wildlife and wild places. WCS runs the world’s largest conservation field program, protecting more than 50 percent of Earth’s known biodiversity in partnership with governments, Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities, and the private sector. Its four zoos and aquarium (the Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, Queens Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo, and the New York Aquarium) welcome more than 3.5 million visitors each year, inspiring generations to care for nature. Visit: newsroom.wcs.org. Follow: @WCSNewsroom. Contact: +1 (347) 840-1242. Listen to the WCS Wild Audio podcast HERE.