Last year more than 90 governments agreed to establish IPBES – the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.
The aim of IPBES is to provide the latest science and knowledge to support more informed decisions on how biodiversity and ecosystem services are conserved and used around the world. IUCN plays a key role in providing this science and knowledge.
The first IPBES plenary meeting will be held in Bonn, Germany from 21 to 26 January, hosted by the Government of Germany. It will aim to agree on the next steps needed to put the IPBES work programme into operation.
IUCN believes that better knowledge about biodiversity, the threats it faces and the conservation measures that can be taken, will help drive action.
By combining world-class knowledge, standards and tools with a mobilized network of more than 1,000 member organizations, both government and civil society, as well as some 11,000 experts in six Commissions around the world, we aim to generate real change in policies and action on the ground to conserve biodiversity.
There are already several mechanisms at the national, regional and global level designed to ensure that scientific information is considered when designing policies or making decisions, including those under the international environmental treaties. But there is no global mechanism recognized by the scientific and policy communities that pulls this information together, synthesizes and analyzes it for a range of sectors. In this way IPBES is similar to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
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