In 2009, IUCN strengthened its collaboration with sister institutions and expanded its range of partners in a bid to furthering its actions in good synergy with local, national and sub-regional actors in fostering sustainable management of ecosystems and natural resources.

Given the threats that ecosystems, biodiversity and the livelihoods of both urban and rural human communities face from climate change, PACO components invested everything possible on the subject.

Many actors were accompanied towards capitalizing and disseminating their experiences on climate change adaptation. Field projects were revisited to enable them better mainstream climate change and new initiatives were identified to facilitate taking into consideration climate change in national and regional policies and programmes.

Actors were mobilised towards the objectives of the Climate Change Summit held in Copenhagen in Denmark in December 2009: effective preparation and participation, sharing Burkina Faso experiences on adaptation to climate change, mobilization and participation of Senegalese Members of Parliament, capacity building of actors, counselling support to national delegates in view of the negotiations.

With the lack of a formal political agreement to allow for a start in limiting greenhouse gas emissions and concretising the declared willingness to put in place new funds for developing countries, Copenhagen marked the beginning of a real world awareness on climate change; that gives room for hope in the medium term, which is the time for more responsible behaviour from all the actors.

2010 was designated as the year of biodiversity by the General Assembly of the United Nations, but it is obvious that in reality, climate change will remain a dominant topic at international level.