The congress ended with the IUCN Members’ Assembly, during which more than 1,000 IUCN member organizations (127 Government agencies, 107 international environmental NGO and 903 national environmental NGO) discussed the IUCN programme for the next 4 years and elected the new President of the Union, Mr Zhang Xinsheng from China. Mr Xinsheng was the Chairperson of the 28th session of the World Heritage Committee, which was held in 2003 in Suzhou, China.

The Members’ Assembly also adopted a number of resolutions and recommendations on important conservation issues which will be guiding IUCN’s policy and programme of work as well as influencing many other organizations around the world. The full text of the different resolutions can be found at http://www.iucnworldconservationcongress.org/member_s_assembly/motions/.

The Members Assembly followed a five-day Conservation Forum where IUCN Members and partners discussed cutting-edge ideas, thinking and practice in conservation. The Forum included eighteen different events on the World Heritage Convention discussing the achievements and challenges of the Convention. Forum events were concluded with a World Heritage 40th anniversary Birthday Celebration event on September 11, where leading personalities in the conservation community expressed their support for the Convention as one of the most relevant international instruments for conserving exceptional biodiversity places.