IUCN 2025 Motion 054: Operationalizing RoN in Territories

Summary

On October 14, 2025, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress passed “Motion 054: Operationalising the rights of nature and evaluating their implementation in territories.” The Motion consists of five requests of governments, the World Commission on Protected Areas, and the World Commission on Environmental Law, of which the latter two are commissions of the IUCN. The Motion (1) asks states to examine the rights of nature and their implications on the rights of Indigenous Peoples and other rights holders; (2) invites national, local, and sub-national governments to recognize the rights of nature legally and culturally; (3) invites governments to recognize the rights of nature for promoting implementation in territories, respecting ecological limits, and involving Indigenous peoples and local communities; (4) asks IUCN to continue exploring how natural entities can become subjects of law; and (5) asks IUCN commissions to assess these legal impacts on biodiversity conservation.

Motion 054 was adopted by the IUCN World Conservation Congress alongside four other motions regarding the rights of nature and another motion advocating for ecocide to be criminalized.

Impact Statement

In a historic milestone for Earth law and global conservation, five Rights of Nature motions, and one motion recognizing the crime of ecocide, officially passed at the 2025 IUCN World Conservation Congress. This development demonstrates that the global conservation community is normatively embracing a paradigm shift from managing Nature as a resource to recognizing ecosystems as rights-bearing entities.

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