The second edition of the IUCN Leaders Forum was held in Geneva, Switzerland, and virtually from 11 to 13 October 2023 with the theme Global goals for nature: Tracking progress, financing success.
In this edition, the IUCN Urban Initiative was involved in two sessions:
11 October 2023, 16:00 CEST
Accelerating nature-positive urban development
The session brought together city leaders, representatives from Multilateral Development Banks, global initiatives and the private sector to identify new collaborations, foster synergies to maximise cities’ contributions to the GBF.
Participants included Christophe Najdovski, Deputy Mayor of the City of Paris; Marina Robles, Secretary of Environment of Mexico City; Rodrigo Pimentel Pinto Ravena, Secretary of the Green and Environment of São Paulo, and Diane B. Holdorf, Executive Vice President of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. The session featured a contribution from Xueman Wang, Senior Urban Specialist and Program Manager at the Global Platform for Sustainable Cities (The World Bank), and Ingrid Coetzee, Director of Biodiversity Nature & Health (ICLEI Africa). The event was moderated by Angelica Nunez, Practice Manager, at the Urban, Resilience, and Land Global Practice (The World Bank) and Maud Lelievre, Chair of the IUCN National Committee of France and IUCN Councillor.
13 October 2023, 8:30 CEST
Partnerships for the global goals: Subnational governments and the GBF.
Leaders Exchange for Action and Decision-Making (LEAD) – By Invitation Only Session
The closed-door, invite-only session was convened by IUCN and the Jeju Self-Governing Province. The session brought together cities and provinces that are leading the world in activities to tackle biodiversity loss at the subnational level to hear about conservation successes of subnational governments and learn from these best practices, as well as discussing the needs of subnational governments to improve conservation impact.
Participants included the municipalities of Paris, France; Curridabat, Costa Roca; Mexico City and Montreal, Canada, as well as provinces such as Jeju, South Korea; Al Ula, Saudi Arabia; Catalonia, Spain and Vihiga County, Kenya. The session was moderated by SungAh Lee, IUCN Deputy Director General for Corporate Services, and featured contributions by Iain Stewart, IUCN Director of Membership and Commission Support and Tim Badman, Head of Heritage and Culture at IUCN.
