Eight Pioneering Policies on Living in Harmony With Nature Win the World Future Policy Award 2025

South Africa’s National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act (NEM:BA) among winners: This year’s eight winning policies set new global benchmarks by showing how legal systems can be transformed into future-just frameworks – and thereby contributing to the well-being of all living beings on Earth and Future Generations.

Hamburg, 9^th October 2025 – Eight pioneering laws and policy frameworks have been named winners of the 2025 World Future Policy Award (WFPA), the world’s leading prize for policy solutions. This year, the WFPA recognises exemplary policies that foster and enable a paradigm shift in policy making in the way we understand our role in Nature and respect it – the foundation of all life.

South Africa’s National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act (NEM:BA) has been recognised as one of the world’s eight best policies for Living in Harmony with Nature and Future Generations and honoured with the World Future Policy Award 2025. The National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act, or NEM:BA, adopted in 2004, is one of the world’s most ambitious biodiversity frameworks. Grounded in the constitutional right to a healthy environment, it secures intergenerational equity through a science-based governance system and safeguards biodiversity for present and future generations. The Act introduced groundbreaking measures for threatened and invasive species, benefit-sharing, and public participation

This year’s winners were chosen from 41 nominations from 21 countries, narrowed down to 13 finalists under the theme Living in Harmony with Nature and Future Generations. An independent Jury of international experts then identified the eight most outstanding policies. These groundbreaking frameworks tackle today’s urgent environmental challenges while safeguarding the wellbeing of future generations. They recognise the legal rights of Nature and ecosystems, embed principles such as Earth Trusteeship and Indigenous wisdom, and place intergenerational justice at the heart of decision-making. The laws make an outstanding contribution to the well-being of present and future generations of all living beings on Earth.

Six policies are winning in the main category, one is honoured with the “Vision Award”, and one takes home the “Global Impact Award”. Global Impact Award is a new category introduced this year, highlighting a policy that has transformative influence on legal and policy thinking worldwide. It inspires a global intergenerational movement and contributes to a fundamental paradigm shift within decision making and governance processes.

6 WORLD FUTURE POLICY AWARD WINNERS – These policies are outstanding candidates

Environmental Ombudsoffice of Tyrol (Tiroler Umweltanwaltschaft), Austria/Tyrol (1991)

Biodiversity Act, Bhutan (2022)

Law 287, which recognises the Rights of Nature and the related obligations of the State with these rights, Panama (2022)

National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act (NEM:BA), South Africa (2004)

Law 19/2022 Granting Mar Menor and its basin status of a legal person, Spain (2022)

The National Environment Act, Uganda (2019)

1 VISION AWARD WINNER – A policy with visionary objectives and promise

International: BBNJ – Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (2023)

1 GLOBAL IMPACT AWARD – The Global Impact Award highlights the policy’s role as a pioneering model that inspires laws and movements around the world

Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act, Aotearoa New Zealand (2017)

“Since its creation, the World Future Policy Award has shown that visionary policymaking can change the course of history,” said Neshan Gunasekera, CEO of the World Future Council. “This year’s winners prove that safeguarding Nature and the rights of future generations is not just an aspiration — it is possible, practical, and already happening. They inspire hope, courage and action at a time when humanity urgently needs all of it.”

“We cannot separate our conservation crises from our governance crises,” said Katy Gwiazdon, Executive Director of the Center for Environmental Ethics and Law and Chair of the Ethics Specialist Group, IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law. “The World Future Policy Award recognizes this critical link between decision-makers and the impacts of their decisions on the community of life. We need compassion, we need creativity, we need courage. These winning policies can help lead us forward. They are ethics in action for the future of life.”

“This year's World Future Policy Award winners are a testament to the power of law to forge a sustainable and just future,” stated Dr Grethel Aguilar, Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). “These pioneering policies, which draw from the wisdom of Indigenous and local knowledge systems, set a new standard for living in harmony with nature and future generations. We are proud to celebrate them at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, as we join forces to work together to shape a just world that values and conserves nature.”

Anda Filip, Director for Member Parliaments and External Relations at the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), added: “Now, more than ever, we need to be sharing and implementing good and effective policies that can turn the tide of the climate emergency and safeguard our precious Planet Earth, for our children and for future generations. Solutions are out there, and they should be seized with courage, solidarity and political will! 

The winners will be celebrated on 11 October at a high-level awards ceremony in Abu Dhabi at the IUCN Congress.