The IUCN World Conservation Congress is the world’s largest and most important conservation event. Held every four years, it aims to improve how we manage our natural environment for human, social and economic development on a global scale. It includes leaders from governments, the public sector, business, UN agencies, conservation and social organizations from around the globe.
The selection of Hawaiʻi is specifically good for threatened species. Hawaiʻi is renowned for its unique and rich biodiversity and is home to 108 threatened native species of animals and 200 threatened plant species represented in the IUCN Red List- far more than any other US state or territory. Hawaiʻi has an enormous assemblage of rare and endemic species of birds, insects, fishes, corals, tropical plants, and molluscs and nearly two-thirds of these species are threatened by invasive species, which continue to be one of the most serious threats to biodiversity conservation, especially on islands.
