The ‘IUCN Green List Governance and Development Workshop’ was jointly organised by IUCN’s Global Protected Areas Programme (GPAP) in cooperation with the International Academy for Nature Conservation of the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), as part of the partnership programme between BfN and IUCN.

The workshop was hosted by the Island of Vilm, which has been the venue for hundreds of workshops over the years, with more than 50,000 participants from around the world having made the journey to Vilm since the 1990s to experience its unique setting for reflection and deliberation. However, in these challenging times of the global pandemic, the spirit of the island was instead brought virtually to all workshop participants. This had the added benefit of enabling inclusive participation.

“With over 120 participants from 45 countries from key regions of IUCN, this virtual workshop showed the commitment, connectedness, and collaborative spirit of the growing Green List global community. Views from diverse stakeholders – including site staff, expert evaluators, reviewers, members of Green List Committees, government protected area agencies, and IUCN organisational and Commission members – provided invaluable feedback to enhance the Development Plan and the clear path forward for global Green List growth.”

-Trevor Sandwidth, GPAP Director, IUCN

The virtual event elicited rich feedback and constructive dialogue over three days of digital engagement across many time zones. Moderated plenary discussions and facilitated breakout group sessions enabled valuable feedback and clear articulation of strategic goals and priority recommendations for seven strategic themes. The resulting IUCN Green List Development Plan is being finalised and will be available on the new website of the IUCN Green List: www.iucngreenlist.org 

The workshop was organised around seven themes fundamental to the implementation and scale-up of the IUCN Green List: mobilizing experts and partners; learning and capacity development; information, data management and performance metrics; informing and reporting on policy commitments; enhancing communications and visual identity; improved financing for Green List protected and conserved areas; and Green List governance and management.

The success of the workshop would not have been possible without the support of these key institutional partners and donors of the IUCN Green List: BfN; Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety of the Federal Republic of Germany; Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Korea; Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; and, the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Management Programme (BIOPAMA) financed by the European Union’s 11th European Development Fund (EDF).