On the occasion of the Fencing for the Planet Day, celebrated this year on 11 April, the FIE is organising a roundtable in Rio de Janeiro as part of the upcoming Junior and Cadet World Championships.
On 5 April, the fencing family will gather near the Olympic Park to examine the contribution fencing practices make to environmental preservation. The focus of the event — Reduce – Reuse – Recycle: Circular Economy in Fencing — Benefits for the Environment and the Fencing Communities — revolves around SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production.
The competition takes place in the facilities that hosted the 2016 Olympic Games — a setting that makes pausing to reflect on fencing’s existing customs, and seeing them under a new light, feel like a natural choice.
The setting carries a double significance. As the flagship FIE event for young athletes and the apex of the junior and cadet season, it signals the urgency of acting to protect the environment for future generations — and brings that message directly to the younger generation, present on the spot.
The future generation of fencers is central to the message delivered by FIE Interim President Abdelmoneim ElHusseiny at the start of 2026.
Fencers, coaches and federation administrators will illustrate, through concrete examples, how responsible consumption and production is already embedded in fencing culture — and how every member of the fencing community can contribute to the sport’s development and the planet’s conservation through daily gestures, awareness and common sense.
The theme runs along two axes:
• Reuse, Repair, Recycle: practical and technical solutions for fencing
• From waste to worth: how donating can transform materials and empower lives.
The Strategic Development Plan calls for further expansion of the Fencing for the Planet programme. The appointment of FIE Secretary General Gulnora Saidova to the ASOIF Sustainability Consultative Group earlier in 2025 reflects the FIE’s commitment to this mission.
Rio de Janeiro is the perfect stage for such a high-powered debate — a city where landmark moments in sustainability and sport have converged: the Earth Summit in 1992, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012, the Olympic Games in 2016, and now the Junior and Cadet Fencing World Championships.
The full programme of the roundtable is available here.
To register for the event, please write an email to: meetings@fie.ch