World Conservation Congress Approves Rhino Protections, Sets Conservation Agenda for Next 20 Years

The IUCN World Conservation Congress (WCC) recently wrapped up its week-long marathon of meetings in Abu Dhabi to set global conservation goals for the next two decades. 

The 2025 Congress gathered more than 10,000 attendees from governments, nonprofits, indigenous peoples’ organizations and academia. 

Among their efforts, these dignitaries solidified support for rhino protections and launched new programs to speed the conservation of imperiled wildlife.

Members of the WCC unanimously approved a motion encouraging support for urgent action to secure the remaining populations of Javan and Sumatran rhinos. 

The motion, submitted for approval by the Government of Indonesia and voted on electronically by IUCN members over the summer, aims to focus attention and resources to bolster protections for Critically Endangered Sumatran and Javan rhinos. 

IRF Executive Director Nina Fascione and IRF Indonesia Director Inov Sectionov made the long journey to the WCC. They were inspired by the representation from organizations and cultures across the globe focused on protecting wildlife and the planet. And they were glad for the support for rhinos, especially the two Critically Endangered species in Indonesia. 

“We’re grateful to the Government of Indonesia for submitting this important motion to increase support for Javan and Sumatran rhinos,” Fascione said. “Despite all the conservation work by the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry and their nonprofit partners, these two rhino species are in serious jeopardy. They need more help from the global community if they are going to survive.”

The WCC highlighted rhinos and other imperiled wildlife with a new approach to guiding organizations on mitigating their impacts to species and ecosystems. This exciting new initiative, called Rapid High-Integrity Nature Positive Outcomes, or RHINO, aims to reduce risk to all the world’s Critically Endangered species, including rhinos. 

The new RHINO approach is modeled off the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species and Species Threat Abatement Restoration metric to help translate biodiversity data into concrete actions for organizations, especially in the private sector, and reduce the risk of extinction. The IUCN Red List now has 172,620 species – including all five existing rhino species – and 48,646 of those are in danger of going extinct.

The WCC also saw IUCN adopt the first worldwide policy on synthetic biology and nature conservation. While synthetic biology could be beneficial to conservation work, it also carries substantial risk through potential unintended ecological impacts. 

The IUCN policy focuses on ensuring conservation uses of synthetic biology proceed with caution and provides a framework for decisions to be made on a case-by-case basis. The policy is relevant to rhinos, as a biosciences company recently announced it hopes to bring back the northern white rhino from the edge of extinction within four years through gene editing.The new global initiatives from IUCN are inspiring and promise renewed focus on rhino protections. Join us today as we work to save rhinos around the world for future generations to experience these important animals.