Dear Friends,

As I started at the helm of this wonderful organization in January of 2007, this Programme Report for 2006 has to begin with words of thanks to our previous Director General Achim Steiner and Ibrahim Thiaw as acting Director General for the last half of the year.

Achim has done a tremendous job at moving the Union back towards reclaiming its leadership in the practice, science and policy of conservation and sustainable development. Further, he and Ibrahim have brought IUCN’s unique role back to centre stage: they have kept our focus on the Union’s vital role as a platform for exchange and collaboration between our volunteer experts in the IUCN Commissions and our member organizations to tackle today’s conservation challenges.

This progress report demonstrates the results that the Union can deliver when members, commissions, partners and the secretariat work together to find scientific consensus, formulate sound policy advice, and create partnerships to tackle conservation challenges in the field.

These results also prove that the IUCN Programme from 2005 to 2008, adopted by members at our Bangkok Congress in 2004, was a major improvement over previous plans: it has provided for collaboration on a wide range of local and global conservation priorities to deliver change towards our vision.

However, we do need to admit that much remains to be done to translate our actions into real impacts. In order to achieve this, we need to restrain our tendency to be too many things to too many people, and rise to the challenge of demonstrating the relevance of conservation to other societal issues. As we look over the shoulders of this Programme Report 2006 towards the next World Conservation Congress, in October 2008 in Barcelona, Spain, and the regional members’ consultations that take place before then, I am confident that the IUCN Programme for 2009–2012 will again be a major leap forward.

An effective and efficient Secretariat is a condition to making that leap to higher ground. Some of the changes required are already under way, and I can assure you that we will continue to make the necessary changes in our operations so that our promise to our members and the wider world becomes a reality.

An exciting and focused Programme implemented by a highly professional Secretariat will continue the course that I have come to lead, and which I believe is the fundamental desire of all our members: to bring the Union back to the apex of decision making and action with regards to conservation and sustainable development.

That, I firmly believe, is where we belong and where we can be before too long!


Julia Marton-Lefèvre
Director General