Opening Plenary: Standards and applications - knowledge guiding policy and practice?

Since the beginnings of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in the 1960s, knowledge, learning, innovation, and technology have always played crucial roles in informing decisions in sustainability. Over the last decade, the flow of such information has become an avalanche, with knowledge products such as the World Database on Protected Areas, the World Database of Key Biodiversity Areas, the Red List of Ecosystems, and others now also central in guiding decisions within and beyond the conservation sector. They are used by governments to plan protected areas, by international agreements (like the CBD and the SDGs) to monitor progress, by the private and financial sectors to establish safeguards and reduce risk, and by indigenous and local communities to stabilise land tenure, generate employment, and mobilise pride in nature. This plenary will comprise two panel discussions: to share experience about recent advances in conservation knowledge standards; and explore their applications.