The Council is the main governing body of IUCN. It is composed of the President, Treasurer, 28 Councillors and Chairpersons of each of the 6 IUCN Commissions. In the new Council voted today by the Assembly of Members of the Union, Sonia Castañeda, deputy director of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, has been elected.

This election is part of the objective of achieving a renewed IUCN Council at a time of transformation and progress, both in the governance of the organization and its role in conservation policies. The aim is to achieve a more ambitious, effective and efficient IUCN, with a greater capacity for political influence. An agile Council, capable of quickly facing the decisions required by the current context of the global pandemic and responding to challenges such as the climate emergency, loss of biodiversity and governance of the organisation itself.

Another of the great challenges is to achieve a more participatory Union in which members and National Committees have an increasing voice and that accommodates young people as agents of change who demand urgent action. A Union that reinforces the gender perspective, equality and equity in all its decisions and actions, and that highlights the important role of the green and blue economy for the generation of employment and conservation of biodiversity, as well as the costs of its loss.

The candidacy, which has had the support of the Third Vice-President of the Government, Teresa Ribera, has been presented with the support of five organisations: two international (Birdlife and Europarc Federation) and three national (Catalunya la Pedrera Foundation, Centre for University Extension and Environmental Dissemination of Galicia (CEIDA) and the Spanish Ornithological Society – SEO).

With the aim of strengthening Spain’s international presence and profile in the field of biodiversity conservation, the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, as a member of IUCN, presented Sonia Castañeda’s candidacy for councillor for Europe in 2019, without any other candidacy from other Spanish members.

Sonia Castañeda will bring executive experience in managing conservation organizations, boards and advisory councils, thanks to her background in the public and government arena, as well as her experience working with companies, donors, universities, NGOs and activists.

With this election, in the 72 years of IUCN’s life and more than 300 regional councillors, only three Spanish people have participated in the Council, two of them women. Acting as a councillor means having a vote in the IUCN governing body and representing the interests of the Union on a voluntary basis and without remuneration.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is a Union of Members composed of sovereign states, government agencies and civil society organizations. Created in 1948, it has become the most diverse environmental network and is the world’s authority on the state of nature and natural resources, as well as the measures needed to protect them. It draws on the expertise, resources and reach of its more than 1,400 member organisations and input from more than 16,000 experts.

Spain has been part of IUCN since 1984. In addition, various Spanish entities such as NGOs, research centres, state government bodies or autonomous communities are members, which meet and coordinate within the IUCN Spanish Committee (CeIUCN), in which the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge participates as Permanent Secretariat and the Biodiversity Foundation as a member.