News

IPBES meeting pushes forward regional assessment

UNEP-WCMC was among the 700 delegates from 270 governments, scientific organizations, civil society and the private sector who attended the Third Meeting of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) held 12-17 January in Bonn, Germany.

IPBES was created to provide policymakers with reliable, independent and credible information on the status of biodiversity, and UNEP-WCMC has been involved from the very start in supporting its establishment and implementation. At this latest meeting it was agreed that a set of regional ecosystem assessments in Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, and Europe and Central Asia should be initiated as they will be an essential contribution to the planned global assessment due for completion by 2019.

As the IPBES Secretariat has yet to come to full strength, both Jerry Harrison and Thomas Koetz from UNEP-WCMC both joined the secretariat in preparing for and running the Plenary, supporting in particular discussions on the Platform’s work programme including preparations for the regional assessments. Thomas continues to work with the Secretariat in Bonn on the immediate follow up to the Plenary.

Under the leadership of Claire Brown, UNEP-WCMC has been providing technical support for development of guidance on producing and integrating ecosystem assessments from across the sub-regional, regional and global levels, and was particularly interested in tracking discussion on this during the Plenary. Claire was also discussing with a number of countries the establishment of national ecosystem assessments which would be both valuable at the national level and contribution to IPBES regional and global assessments.

The Plenary was also an opportunity to raise awareness of Sub-Global Assessment (SGA) Network which offers support to countries that are preparing and revising their NEAs. The SGA Network, whose Secretariat is hosted by UNEP-WCMC, is a forum for practitioners involved in ecosystem assessments at the sub-global level and offers opportunities for knowledge sharing and training in undertaking and interpreting NEAs.

At the meeting, the IPBES Member States present also adopted a conflict of interest policy, a communications strategy and a stakeholder engagement strategy, and approved the guidance on strategic partnerships and other collaborative arrangements. UNEP-WCMC will continue to provide technical assistance to the IPBES Secretariat on a range of issues, and is actively exploring how this support can be increased.

Have a query?