The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international umbrella organization of more than 14,000 governmental and non-governmental organizations. It assesses and evaluates the state of nature (e.g. the Red List of Endangered Species) and elaborates suggestion for necessary measures necessary to protect nature.

At the IUCN World Conservation Congress, which takes place every four years, several thousand high-ranking leaders and decision-makers from governments, civil society, indigenous peoples, business and science come together to develop the basis for resolutions, positions and standards for better nature conservation. Prominent participants such as the French President Emmanuel Macron, the President of the ECB, Christine Lagarde and the actor and environmental activist Harrison Ford made an urgent call in Marseille for immediate action to solve the urgent nature conservation issues, to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Achieve sustainable development.

At the World Congress, the European Union positioned itself as a forerunner in nature conservation and the protection of biodiversity. An important cornerstone of this EU strategy are nature-based solutions and participatory approaches in order to implement them timely and in large scale both in Europe and beyond. In order to create acceptance, the involvement of all stakeholders is an essential element. Scientists and practitioners elaborate joint recommendations for action based on their work in a large number of EU-funded projects. At the world congress, the various working groups presented their results and reported on the ongoing work of the cross-project activities.

The completed manual and the appendix on indicators for evaluating nature-based solutions were presented to the public at the congress. In the thematic session on the manual, Gerd Lupp from the Chair for Strategy and Management of Landscape Development at TUM presented the PHUSICOS method set and the exemplary participatory application using the example of Isar restorartion in Munich.

In a further workshop, the importance of broad participation, barriers and strategies for overcoming them as well as success factors were outlined. The multidisciplinary working group dealing with this topic was represented by Gonçalo Canto Momiz, Américo Mateus (URBINAT), Israa Mahmoud (CLEVER Cities) and Gerd Lupp (PHUSICOS), who gave the interested audience insights to this topic