World Parks Congress 2027

It is part of a major international effort supporting “30×30,” the global target to conserve 30 percent of the surface of the earth by 2030. The work is supported by a grant that QLF Senior Vice President Brent Mitchell secured from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the largest ever raised for IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas. With a senior vice president serving as a vice chair, QLF is centrally involved in three global initiatives of WCPA, a volunteer network of more than 3,200 professionals.

First is the development of the next World Parks Congress, convened only six times since the series was launched in 1962 (in Seattle) and 1972 (in Yellowstone). QLF is represented on the 11-member International Steering Committee and leading one of the three themes for this event, expected to attract 7,000 conservationists to Panama in September 2027. More than a meeting, this rare congress (now called the World Protected and Conserved Areas Congress) is being designed to set an agenda for expanding the scale and effectiveness of conservation areas for decades after 2030.

Second, and a bit closer to the ground, QLF and WCPA are launching an initiative of technical support to 30×30 in the Andes Amazon region of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. This rather large project will develop and refine guidance on many topics, including ecological integrity (protecting natural systems, not just species); support systems for protected areas (new technology and tools for greater effectiveness); recognition and support for “indigenous and traditional territories,” as called for in the 30×30 commitment, and more.

For example, we are planning a workshop in September to explore “future conservation areas,” that is a possible new designation to recognize that species and habitats are moving in response to climate change, while human populations are migrating due to climate and other disruptions. In a separate project we will convene the heads of parks agencies later this year in the World Protected Areas Leaders Forum.

Third, QLF, representing WCPA, partners closely with the United Nations agency responsible for Target 3 and all of the Global Biodiversity Framework. Together we host a community of practice for actors to share their experience in implementing 30×30. And we are advising on development of a new Programme of Work on Protected Areas. This complements our partnership with the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People (HAC) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in curating an online resource of technical guidance, 30×30.solutions.

To support all of this work, QLF secured the largest grant ever raised specifically for WCPA—a volunteer network of more than 3,200 professionals—from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation for a body of work we call the Futures of Conservation Areas.