At the opening, Regional Director Boris Erg and his team greeted the representatives of national and international organizations and institutions that promote sustainability in Bonn. On behalf of the City of Bonn, Deputy Mayor Gabi Mayer warmly welcomed the office and its staff.
Oldest and largest international nature conservation organization
Among international nature conservation actors, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), founded in 1948, plays a special role as it is the oldest and largest international nature conservation organization. Since December 1999, it has had observer status at the United Nations General Assembly. Its statutory mission is to "influence, encourage and assist societies worldwide to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that all uses of natural resources are equitable and ecologically sustainable."
Its members are states, governmental and non-governmental organizations active in nature conservation organizations - in Germany, in addition to the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection and the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, these include the German Society for International Cooperation GIZ and 20 German non-governmental organizations. IUCN membership also includes subnational governments and Indigenous peoples’ organizations.
European activities are coordinated from Bonn
IUCN works in numerous thematic programmes, seven commissions and decentralized operation through various regional offices. IUCN's Headquarters are located in Gland, Switzerland. The Environmental Law Centre of IUCN has been based in Bonn since 1970. In Europe, activities are coordinated by the European Regional Office in Bonn and implemented through the office in Brussels. In the EU, IUCN is recognized as a conservation knowledge authority and it actively contributes to EU nature policy. European activities have been coordinated from the German site in Bonn since 2022.
Boris Erg: "Given the central role of the UN city of Bonn in global environmental policy and the support IUCN receives from the German government, the IUCN presence at the Bonn site has been significantly expanded in recent years, leading to the opening of the European Regional Office in 2022. Today, the IUCN Regional Office in Bonn hosts teams working in the areas of climate, forests and grasslands, environmental law, urban spaces, ocean, and knowledge management, working at both the European and global levels."
IUCN works very closely on nature-based solutions in urban areas with the Bonn-based global city network ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability, of which Mayor Katja Dörner is a board member.
Mayor Dörner: "IUCN has a decisive influence on the global biodiversity agenda. And together with ICLEI, roughly since the year 2006, model projects and new coalitions have succeeded in actively involving cities and regions as important stakeholders. Visible successes are the second Action Plan for Cities and Regions already adopted by the Parties and the Advisory Council of Cities to the Biodiversity Convention, of which I am also a member."
Important player in Bonn's sustainability cluster
With the new regional office, IUCN has positioned itself as an indispensable voice in the Bonn sustainability cluster, not only because of the organization's close ties to the United Nations in Bonn on all issues related to nature, climate, land, and water but also because of diverse networking ties with other Bonn players in nature conservation, agriculture and forestry.