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Anote Tong // Former President of the Republic of Kiribati – “Truly understand what you have. Our natural resources no longer have the appearance of being infinite.”
David Y. Ige // Governor of the State of Hawaii – “All of you need to realize that this is a historic event. The planet is in peril. As an island state we see the effects of climate change every day. We are committed to make a change. Each and everyone one of us can make a difference.”
Alexander Müller // TEEBAgFood Study Leader and former Assistant Director General of FAO – “ One of the most important issues for agriculture is adaptation to climate change, and climate change needs genetic biodiversity.
Allison Leidner // Scientist at Earth Science Division, Universities Space Research Association/NASA – “NASA does Earth Science. And Earth Science is really important for conservation."
Charles McNeill // Senior Advisor, Forests and Climate UNDP – “I think we need to stop thinking about forest actions as costs but as efficient invest vehicles for conservation activities”
Craig Groves // Science for Nature and People Partnership (SNAPP) – “This is a time for us to break down the silos in our organizations and disciplinary thinking to reach across the room and talk to everyday people in our lives, because this is how we will find new solutions and new partnerships”
Hon. Rabbi Sergio Bergman // Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Argentina - “It doesn’t matter if we don’t have enough scientific knowledge; this is a question of ethics.”
Masami Saionji // Chairperson of: Byakko Shinko Kai, The World Peace Prayer Society and The Goi Peace Foundation – “Spirituality is at the heart of conservation; gratitude and love is at the center of humanity. We need a culture based on the divine spark within each of our hearts to create peace with nature.”
Reverend Peter Harris // Anglican Minister, Co-founder and President of A Rocha – “Nature matters because we won’t survive without it, but also because it’s intrinsically valuable.”
Emilie Gaillard // Professor, University of Caen, France - "Most courts have talked about rights for humankind. It has to be interlinked with rights for nature”
Carla Colaljo // Law Student, University of Cebu - College of Law, Philippines - "Nature is not just for human needs, but for nature itself."
Linda Sheehan // Executive Director of Earth Law Center – “Rights of nature needs to be part of all analysis and decision-making in the IUCN”.
Melissa Moye Director // Conservation Finance at the World Wildlife Fund – “There is a lot of work in conservation finance which is not meant to have any kind of profitable return”
Dr. Sylvia Earle // Founder, Mission Blue & Ocean Elder- “The one word that describes this entire event. It’s just a small word, but it conveys the power of opportunity that we now share. It is simply hope.”
Toby McLeod // Project Director at Sacred Land Film Project of Earth Island Institute – “Sacred sites are the oldest forms of protected sites on the planet"
Liz Hosken // Gaia Foundation - "The main reason we are here is because we must insist at a minimum that all protected areas should be no go to industrial activity otherwise what's the point?"
Patricia Gualinga // Sarayaku leader - "If we do not recognize the life force of the living forest no form of conservation is going to work. We cannot allow continue to allow conservation that allows industrialization."
Julia Miranda Londoño // Directora General, Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia - “We as a country have committed to working with national parks to include climate change policies and work with local communities”.
Julia Miranda Londoño // Directora General, Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia - “We (Colombia) have committed to zero deforestation in the Amazon by 2020”.
Sylvia Earle // Founder, Mission Blue & Ocean Elder. - “We need other ways of looking at our fellow creatures in the sea”
Sylvia Earle // Founder, Mission Blue & Ocean Elder - “We are a part of nature not apart from it. We need to place it higher on the balance sheet”
Irina BOKOVA // Director General, UNESCO - “It is about living in one and the same world, with one and the same values and one and the same challenges”
Naoko Ishii // CEO and Chairperson, Global Environmental Facility - “My dream for 2020 is to make the global commons everybody’s business”
Sally JEWELL // Secretary of the Interior, United States Government - “I would encourage all the people from all the countries all over the world to tap into this indigenous knowledge to build respect for those cultures”
Brooke Runette // Executive Vice President, Chief Program and Impact Office, National Geographic Society - “Our planet is at a crossroads, but if we work together I believe this can be our finest hour”
Deric Quaile // Manager of Environmentally Sensitive Area, Shell UK - “Business and conservation can work together, work together well, towards improving conservation."
Deependra Nath Sharma // Secretary of Ministry of Urban Development, Nepal - "I foresee a very important role to be played by civil society for green recovery and construction."
Rita Schwarzeluehr-Sutter // German Parliamentary State Secretary - “We need to launch a century of forest restoration and conservation ”
Aida Greenbury // Managing Director of Sustainability and Stakeholder Engagement, Asia Pulp & Paper Group - “The ambition of the company is to develop a new business model to decouple business growth and environmental degradation”.
Marcelo Furtado // Executive Director of Arapyaú Institute, representing the Brazilian Coalition on Climate, Forests, and Agriculture - “If you don’t address economics, land ownership, and indigenous peoples, you will not make restoration or environmental policy politically acceptable".
Thomas Friedman // Foreign Affairs Columnist and Author, NY Times - "The other thing which gives me hope is around the word later. Later is officially over. You can remove it from the dictionary because later will now be too late."
Melinda Macleod // Principal Sustainability, BHP Billiton - "It's not just the passionate people within the company, but also having that independent third voice coming through is also helpful”
Jessie Macneil-Brown // Senior Manager of International Campaigned 7 Corporate Responsibility, The Body Shop - "By 2020 we will restore 75 million meters of forests."
Alejandro Del Mazo // National Commissioner for Natural Protected Areas, Mexico - "By the end of this year, all the islands of Mexico will be protected areas."
Professor Edward O. Wilson // University Research Professor Emeritus at Harvard - “The only way to solve Earth's biodiversity and create a truly sustainable world is to take a giant leap. The goal then should be is to raise the area reserved for natural species and ecosystems from 15% land and 3% of the sea to one half of the land and one half of the sea”
Erik Solheim // Executive Director, UNEP - "We need another language. We need to get out of these acronyms and technical terms. We need to speak in a plain language."
Peter Bakker // President and CEO, WBCSD - "We should make it the norm for business to do the right thing. We should make it the rule”
Sally Jewell // Secretary of the Interior, USA - "We've protected Bristol Bay from any oil or gas development."
Patricia Espinosa // Executive Secretary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).- “National governments must hear from the conservation community what needs to be done to unlock the full potential of nature-based solutions”ç
Enele Sopoaga // Prime Minister, Tuvalu.- “ If we save Tuvalu, we save the world. That is my punch line.”
Martha Rojas- Urrego, Secretary General, The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands // “Women are managers. They manage water. They produce food, 50-80 percent in developing countries. They are decision-makers. … We need to take into account gender”.
Bianca Jagger // IUCN Bonn Challenge ambassador.- “ If you don’t think this is important, think twice. This is one of the most important initiatives happening in the world today”
Bio-cultural Creativity and Traditional Knowledge Documentation in the Pacific
Porer Nombo // Local Government representative (Komiti) Papua New Guinea.- “Following the knowledge of the forest, our ancestors managed to survive. If we forget these things, where will be now?"
Jeffrey Sachs // director of The Earth Institute.- “We Need not a social conscience, but a social consciousness”
Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim // Coordinator, Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad.- “Nature is our food, our doctor, also our economy.”
Jane Goodall // “Think about the consequences of what you do every day, what you eat, what you buy, where does it come from. Learn a bit more about all these things”
Dr. Clement Chilima // Director of Forestry, Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining, Malawi.- "Malawi declares a total area of 4.5 million hectares to be restored by 2030."
Martin Keller // President of the Association of Guatemalan Private Natural Reserves.- I'm proud to announce that the Association of Guatemalan Private Natural Reserves is making a pledge of 40,000 hectares to contribute to the Bon Challenge.
Bianca Jagger // IUCN Bonn Challenge Ambassador.- “The Bonn Challenge will benefit people everywhere, including the world's poorest and the most vulnerable communities and indigenous peoples throughout the world."
Humberto Delgado Rosa // Director, Natural Capital Unit, DG Environment, European Commission - "The overseas territories, in partnership with the EU and IUCN, have seized the momentum to magnify the impact on the ground, where it really matters"
James Watson // Director of the Science and Research Initiative Wildlife Conservation Society: “Conservation needs to be at the forefront of every sustainability goal, or else we have no shot of achieving any of those goals”
Celeste Conners // Executive Director of Hawai'i Green Growth: “Islands are living laboratories for solutions”
Xavier Sticker // Ambassador for the Environment, France: It's not always a question of money, it's a question of ideas”
Julie Ann Wrigley, President and CEO of Wrigley Investments: "We will fail. We need to make partnerships."
Steve Monfort // Director of Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute: “We need to find a way to make science less intimidating and more accessible"
John Scanlon // Secretary General, Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES).- “Wildlife poaching by transnational criminal gangs much be treated as a serious crime in order to successfully address”.
Peter A. Seligmann //Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Conservation International, United States.- “To deal with climate change and other challenges it is indispensable to establish partnerships with Indigenous Peoples”
Christy Martin // Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species (CGAPS) – “Another really strong trend is that there's low public awareness... people just don't see other species as invasive, people just don't see it as a problem”
David Freestone // Executive Secretary, Sargasso Sea Commission.- “We need an overarching overseas government, which will force governments to talk to each other”
Adam Whelchel // Director of Science at The Nature Conservancy.- “We must link science and traditional knowledge with process for community reliance building”
Zhang Xinsheng // IUCN President - “This unique gathering of top minds holds the key to innovation, inspiration and most importantly, action.”
Inger Andersen // IUCN Director General - “No IUCN Congress before has come at a more pivotal time for humanity’s relationship with the environment.”
H.S.H. Prince Albert of Monaco - “The IUCN Congress will enable all those concerned with the preservation of our planet to make their voices heard, and I will add mine with enthusiasm and determination.”
Sir David Attenborough - “The IUCN World Conservation Congress is an exceptional event of great importance to our Island Earth.”
Sylvia Earle // oceanographer and National Geographic Society Explorer-in-Residence - “The IUCN Congress in Hawaiʻi in 2016 is a moment when actions can be taken at a time when options are closing and closing fast.”
H.R.H. The Duke of Cambridge - “The illegal wildlife trade is pushing iconic species to extinction while threatening the wellbeing of local communities. The IUCN World Conservation Congress has the power to bring all the necessary components together in search of solutions that benefit wildlife and people.”
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala // Former Minister of Finance, Nigeria - “We’re all in this together. It’s time to be bold. It’s time to take action. There’s no time to lose, so let’s make it count in Hawaiʻi.”
Naoko Ishii // CEO and Chairperson, Global Environment Facility - “The tragedy of our global environment commons, from land degradation to climate change, pollution, overfishing or biodiversity loss, is playing out before our eyes. We can address it if we work together and the IUCN Congress is a great place to engage in this critical priority for people and the planet.”
Thomas E. Lovejoy // Senior Fellow, United Nations Foundation and Professor, George Mason University - “This World Conservation Congress will address the greatest challenge facing life on Earth since the asteroid hastened the demise of the dinosaurs.”
Jim Kim // President, World Bank Group - “The IUCN Congress will set the course for using nature-based solutions to help move millions out of poverty, creating a more sustainable economy and restoring a healthier relationship with our planet.”
Thomas Friedman // New York Times - “I wouldn’t miss the IUCN World Conservation Congress. If we don’t now take the decisions we need to protect these ecosystems for the future, it will be an unforgivable sin to our children and to our children’s children. So I can’t think of anything more important to be doing with my time.”
Click here to watch leaders and scientific experts around the world talking about why the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2016 in Hawaiʻi is an invaluable step in moving the historic agreements of 2015 into action.
