The Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) has signed a framework partnership agreement with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), under the directives of Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Ruler's Representative in Al Dhafra Region and Chairman of EAD.
The agency said it is the first entity in West Asia to establish this level of institutional partnership with the union, marking a new phase in a collaboration that stretches back nearly two decades.
Flexible support for conservation
Unlike earlier support tied to specific networks or single meetings, the framework partnership gives the IUCN flexible funding to strengthen the core scientific work that governments, conservationists and non-governmental organisations rely on worldwide. EAD described the agreement as a direct response to the Abu Dhabi Call to Action, translating that commitment into a long-term, multi-year programme spanning the priorities agreed at the union's recent congress.
Those priorities range from reaffirming nature as the foundation of human well-being and strengthening international cooperation to advancing conservation science and scaling up funding for nature and climate action.
A long-standing relationship
EAD has been a member of the IUCN since 2012 and has hosted every meeting of the union's Species Survival Commission leaders since 2008 — the largest scientific network of its kind. The agency is one of the region's most active conservation bodies, with programmes covering marine ecosystems, mangroves, groundwater and threatened species such as the houbara bustard and the Arabian oryx.
By formalising a flexible, multi-year partnership rather than project-by-project grants, EAD is positioning Abu Dhabi as a long-term backer of global conservation science at a time when funding for nature is under pressure. The agreement also reinforces the emirate's wider environmental diplomacy, building on its hosting of major climate and biodiversity gatherings in recent years.