IUCN and perspectives on biodiversity conservation in a changing world

Biodiversity conservation is not a clear-cut practice and there is no blueprint solution to the question how to best halt the loss of biological diversity. Various conservation approaches are surrounded by a variety of basic assumptions about the world, nature and the human-nature relationship. These assumptions are more often implicitly hidden in practices and discourse than purposefully produced and deployed at a conscious level. The aim of our paper is to contribute to the on-going discussion on how to halt the loss of biodiversity in a dynamic global socio-ecological system. We will present an analysis of the worldview(s) and management style(s) of the oldest and largest global conservation organization: the International Union of Nature Conservation (IUCN). Popular in many conservation organisations is the strategy of integrating conservation in policy, business and society. Our discourse analysis demonstrates that although IUCN employs a strongly pluralistic practice of conservation, it is difficult to speak of a truly integrative approach yet.