Story | 26 Aug, 2016

Mexico, Central America, and The Caribbean: a journey towards sustainability

It’s not just the final destination that makes a journey worthwhile, but everything we learn along the way.

Photo: Paul Aragón/UICN

Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean is one of the regions richest in terrestrial and marine biodiversity, with communities, ethnic groups and indigenous peoples who have inhabited the area for thousands of years, protecting and living in harmony with natural resources.

Mesoamerica has 12% of the world’s biological wealth in just 2% of the planet’s land above sea level. It contains the second most important barrier reef in the world, and 8% of the earth’s remaining mangroves.

The Caribbean islands form one of the major centres of endemic biodiversity in the world due to the region’s geography and climate.

Thanks to all these actions, added to the thousands of efforts by IUCN Member organizations, we have achieved results and generated knowledge, lessons, and good practices. As a whole, they contribute a wealth of concepts and actions to the global environmental agenda helping paradigms of sustainable development to prevail.

Together with our Members and partners, the IUCN Regional Office for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean has sought to bring all this learning on our journey to the 2016 World Conservation Congress, in hopes that it will allow us to connect with other regions experiencing similar challenges and with global proposals including thematic interests aligned with these problems.

The best examples of this thematic linkage will be exhibited in the different spaces of the Conservation Forum, such as knowledge cafés, pavilions, high-level dialogues, workshops, posters, and the Conservation Campus. Please join us in our journey to the World Conservation Congress Hawai’i 2016.

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