Background and purpose

Each World Conservation Congress produces a statement that summarizes key issues, aspirations, new ideas or actions emerging from the many activities and deliberations.  The Congress Steering Committee in collaboration with the Host Committee, and following consultation with the IUCN Council, decided that the outcomes document for this the 2016 Congress will have the working title of The Hawaiʻi Commitments to:

• Express the spirit of both formal and informal deliberations arising from the Congress including inspiration words and concepts.
• Distill ideas emerging from the ‘high level dialogues’ during the Forum and the discussion of ‘Issues of Strategic Importance’ during the Members Assembly that provide ‘new big-picture’ ideas or practices have advanced since the previous Congress.
• Capture major new initiatives and innovations emerging from the Congress

The Hawaiʻi Commitments will not be a negotiated text. The term ‘commitments’ is used here to convey our collective commitments to conservation action with the sense of urgency demanded by the Congress theme: Planet at the Crossroads. The Congress Steering Committee has established a subcommittee to oversee the drafting process based on reports from session rapporteurs and comments from Congress participants on draft versions of the text.

The drafting process of the Hawaii Commitments

The Hawaiʻi Commitments document will be open for online comments from all Congress participants.  The Congress web page will have a section where participants will be able to view the draft version and enter their comments. Draft versions will be posted twice on the Congress web page in three official languages (English, French and Spanish) during the Congress:

Hawaiʻi Commitments First draft. This draft will include inputs from discussions of the six ‘Forum High level Sessions’ and will be open for online comments from September 7^th at 9:00am hours until 8^th September at 12:00pm.

Hawaiʻi Commitments Second draft. This second draft will include inputs from the three IUCN Members Assembly discussions on ‘Issues of Strategic Importance and will be open for comments on September 9^th from 8:00am to 12:00pm.

A final document of the Hawaiʻi Commitments will be presented on September 10^th during the 8^th sitting of the Members Assembly.