At the 2016 World Conservation Congress, IUCN Members adopted Resolution 29 on “Incorporating urban dimensions of nature conservation into the work of IUCN.” To drive its implementation, the Members called on Council—IUCN’s highest decision-making body—”to establish an ‘IUCN Urban Alliance’, chaired by a member of Council and composed of Members and units of Commissions and the Secretariat concerned with urban dimensions of conservation…” 

With the financial support of Arcadia, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin, the IUCN Urban Alliance was launched in late 2018. It has since grown into a diverse global coalition committed to bringing cities into balance with nature.