Proposed amendment to the IUCN Statutes: Including local and regional governmental authorities in the structure of the Union

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1 WORLD CONSERVATION CONGRESS September 2016, Hawai i, United States of America Congress document WCC /1 1 June 2016 Proposed amendment to the IUCN Statutes: Including local and regional governmental authorities in the structure of the Union Action Requested: The World Conservation Congress is invited to CONSIDER the proposed amendments with regard to the inclusion of local and regional governmental authorities in the structure of the Union submitted by five Government Agency Members of IUCN under Article 105 of the IUCN Statutes. DRAFT MOTION The IUCN World Conservation Congress, Adopts the following amendment to the IUCN Statutes: i) Amend Article 4(a) of the IUCN Statutes as follows: (existing text, if any, to be removed in strike through; proposed new text in blue italics) The Members of IUCN shall be: Category A: (a) States, and government agencies and local or regional governmental authorities; ii) Amend Article 5 of the IUCN Statutes by inserting a new provision 5(c) and renumbering all subsequent sections as follows: (existing text, if any, to be removed in strike through; proposed new text in blue italics) (c) local or regional governmental authorities of a given State shall be those: (i) to have competences to adhere to the Statutes of IUCN; and (ii) to have effective decision making authority in the field of conservation of nature and the equitable and ecologically sustainable use of natural resources; iii) Amend Article 34 of the IUCN Statutes by inserting new provisions 34(b) and 34(d) and renumbering the existing sections as follows: (existing text, if any, to be removed in strike through; proposed new text in blue italics) Governmental Members shall have voting rights as follows: (a) each State Member shall have three four votes, one of which shall be exercised collectively by the Government Agency Members, if any, of that State; (b) one of the four votes of a State Member in which there are also local and/or regional governmental authority Members of IUCN, shall be exercised collectively by the local and/or regional governmental authority Members of that State; (c) Government Agency Members of IUCN within a State which is not a State Member of IUCN shall collectively have one vote; (d) local and/or regional governmental authority Members of IUCN within a State which is not a State Member of IUCN shall collectively have one vote; [...].

2 Background On 11 February 2016, the President of IUCN received a letter from Ms. Marta Subirà, Secretary for Environment and Sustainability of the Government of Catalonia, Spain, to propose amendments to the IUCN Statutes enabling local and regional governmental authorities to become Members of IUCN in Category A. On the same day, the same proposal was made in the Union Portal on behalf of the Ministry of Territory and Sustainability Government of Catalonia, Government Agency Member, Spain, announcing that the proposal was supported by 4 other Government Agencies mentioned by name in the Portal. At the advice of the IUCN Secretariat that in addition to the initial proposal from the Government of Catalonia, the same proposal should also be received directly from the four Government Agency Members, the IUCN, on 29 February 2016, received electronic messages with, attached, the same proposal from: 1) the Agency for Nature and Forest of the Flemish Ministry of Environment, Nature and Energy, Government Agency Member, Belgium; 2) the Consejería de Medio Ambiente y Ordenación del Territorio de la Junta de Andalucía, Government Agency, Spain. On 1 March 2016, the IUCN received messages with, attached, the same proposal from: 3) the Ayuntamiento de Málaga, Government Agency Member, Spain; and 4) the Ministry of Agriculture, Agrarian Development, Minor Irrigation, Industries and Environment, Government Agency Member, Sri Lanka. On 29 February 2016, the Ministry of Territory and Sustainability Government of Catalonia updated the initial posting of the proposal made in the Union Portal to include the names of the four Government Agencies co-sponsoring its proposal. All five Government Agency Members were up-to-date with payment of their membership dues at the time of submitting the proposal. In the correspondence between the Ministry of Territory and Sustainability Government of Catalonia and the IUCN Secretariat it was clarified that the proponent intended to submit a proposal directly to the Congress under Article 105 (b) of the IUCN Statutes. The proposal explicitly refers to the 2 nd of two options for statutory amendments submitted by the IUCN Council to the 2012 Congress (Congress Document WCC /7), which failed to achieve the 2/3 majority of votes required in each Category A and B in order to be adopted. Attached are: I. the letter dated 11 February 2016 from Ms. Marta Subirà, Secretary for Environment and Sustainability of the Government of Catalonia, Spain II. the annex to the letter with the proposed amendment and an explanatory memorandum, which were attached to the submissions from the four Government Agency Members co-sponsoring the proposal. 2

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4 Draft 11 February 2016 Amendment to Statutes proposal for the 2016 World Conservation Congress (Hawaii, USA) Amendments to include local and regional governments in the Union s structure Proposed amendment The proposal of amendment we submit is based on the motion WCC-2012-/9.4.1/7, to include local and regional governmental authorities in the structure of the Union, which was put to vote at the 5 th World Congress (Jeju, 2012). We, the IUCN members signing this document, hereby request that the following articles of the Union s Statutes be amended, with the chief goal of accommodating local and regional governmental authorities within the IUCN structure: i) Article 4(a) of the IUCN Statutes as follows: (existing text, if any, to be removed in strike through; proposed new text in blue italics) The Members of IUCN shall be: Category A: (a) States, and government agencies and local or regional governmental authorities; ii) iii) Article 5 of the IUCN Statutes by inserting a new provision 5(c) and renumbering all subsequent sections as follows: (existing text, if any, to be removed in strike through; proposed new text in blue italics) (c) local or regional governmental authorities of a given State shall be those: (i) to have competences to adhere to the Statutes of IUCN; and (ii) to have effective decision making authority in the field of conservation of nature and the equitable and ecologically sustainable use of natural resources; Article 34 of the IUCN Statutes by inserting new provisions 34(b) and 34(d) and renumbering the existing sections as follows: (existing text, if any, to be removed in strike through; proposed new text in blue italics) Governmental Members shall have voting rights as follows:

5 Draft 11 February 2016 (a) each State Member shall have three four votes, one of which shall be exercised collectively by the government agency Members, if any, of that State; (b) one of the four votes of a State Member in which there are also local and/or regional governmental authority Members of IUCN, shall be exercised collectively by the local and/or regional governmental authority Members of that State; (c) government agency Members of IUCN within a State which is not a State Member of IUCN shall collectively have one vote; (d) local and/or regional governmental authority Members of IUCN within a State which is not a State Member of IUCN shall collectively have one vote; [...] Explanatory Memorandum Resolution WCC 2008 RES (Including local and regional governmental authorities in the structure of the Union) approved at the 4th World Conservation Congress (Barcelona, 2008), called the Union to seek legal advice, develop options and hold consultations to achieve greater recognition of local and regional governments. Its compliance led to a review of the Statutes of the Union and at the 5th World Conservation Congress (Jeju, 2012), two options of amendment were put to the vote through the motion WCC-2012-/9.4.1/7. Option 1, proposed to amend article 5 referring specifically to local and regional governments. Option 2, additionally proposed to modify articles 4 and 34, allocating 4 votes to each member State, instead of 3, with local and regional governments sharing 1 of these 4 votes. Despite neither of the two options was approved, both were widely supported in terms of number of votes at both the Governmental and NGO forums. % of yes votes Option 1 Option 2 NGOs 68,29 74,16 Governments 65,81 65,66 Voting results prove that this a matter of interest to the Union s members, and one that is worth revisiting, as this legitimate recognition for the responsibility and importance of local and regional governments with powers in the fields of the environment, sustainability and other biodiversity conservation-related policies remains an outstanding issue within the Union. The main reason for submitting again a proposal of review and amendment of the Statutes in this line is the fact that local and regional authorities are key actors in promoting nature conservation in many countries. This can be seen by the

6 Draft 11 February 2016 bolstering in recent years of international networks, forums and committees bringing together local and regional governmental authorities with nature conservancy-related responsibilities, such as the CBD s Advisory Committee of Subnational Governments. The role played by local and regional governments around the world in territorial planning, the harnessing of natural resources and nature conservation, as well as in the design of environmental and sectoral policies is fundamental and complements the role of their National Governments. According to all these reasons, this proposed amendment seeks greater presence of local and regional governmental authorities within the Union s structure, in line with the decisive role these levels of government play in the conservation of the natural heritage, and boosts IUCN s efforts to bring together an array of actors with different roles, responsibilities and powers in the field of conservation and foster all policies helping to reduce the loss in biodiversity. Proposed by Government of Catalonia, GA/975 Co-sponsors