The City of Cape Town expects the protection of its world-renowned biodiversity and the creation of urban environmental solutions to be strengthened through its new International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) membership.

The city has become the first member of the IUCN’s Subnational Governments Membership Category after receiving approval for its application in November. Internal processes are now underway to enable access to IUCN platforms.

The membership is expected to assist the city in the protection of marine and fynbos ecosystems and the co-creation of solutions to address complex urban nature conservation.

Benefits of the membership will include:

• Peer-to-peer exchange with the IUCN’s more than 1 400 members and city-to-city collaboration
• Access to environmental, nature conservation and biodiversity expertise
• Access to technical assistance and funding to facilitate project implementation
• Global branding and visibility across the IUCN network

The IUCN is the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, comprising government and civil society organisations and harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of more than 17 000 experts.

IUCN’s purpose is to provide public, private and non-governmental organisations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together.

The subnational category was introduced in recognition of the critical role that cities and local government have in achieving the IUCN mission. Until this important change, subnational governments had few global platforms to influence the global environmental agenda, given that representation is generally at a national scale. Subnational governments can now join IUCN with a full voice and can table and debate motions, thereby directly influencing the global conservation agenda.

IUCN is supported by major international stakeholders such as the United Nations, the European Commission, the Green Climate Fund and the Global Environment Facility as well as the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation.