Role of DIVERSITAS
What is the role of DIVERSITAS in IPBES?
Contribution to the formal process
Second session of IPBES Plenary (16-21 April 2012, Panama City, Republic of Panama)
See outcome of this second plenary and quotes from A Larigauderie in Nature, 23 April 2012.
A Larigauderie was Head of Delegation at this second session; H Mooney, former Chair SC-DIVERSITAS, Mark Lonsdale, Treasurer SC-DIVERSITAS and P Leadley, Chair SC-bioDISCOVERY were also Members. See composition of ICSU delegation.
To prepare for this second plenary, ICSU, DIVERSITAS and USGS organised a scientific workshop (Annapolis, USA, 31 Jan-2 Feb 2012) to further define the knowledge generation function of IPBES. Conclusions of this workshop are presented in Document UNEP/IPBES.MI/2/INF/11 available to delegates in Panama.
IHDP, UNU and the governments of Japan and South Africa, in collaboration with DIVERSITAS also held a survery of natural and social scientists interested in IPBES around the world. The survey was answered by 2,235 People from 136 countries. They then convened a scientific workshop (Tokyo, Japan, 27-29 Feb 2012) to analyse the results of this survey and further define the assessment function of IPBES. Conclusions of this workshop are presented in Document UNEP/IPBES.MI/2/INF/10 available to delegates in Panama.
The governments of Japan and South Africa, together with UNU, IHDP and DIVERSITAS held a side event at the IPBES second Plenary session, on Tuesday 17 April, 13:00-15:00 (Panama) to present the conclusions of the two scientific workshops presented above, as well as results of the global survey.
- Opening statement made by ICSU;
- Programme of the side event;
- Brochure on assessment and on knowledge generation;
- Findings of the IPBES Assessment Global Survey.
Stakeholder Day (15 April 2012, Panama City, Republic of Panama)
IUCN and ICSU co-chaired the second IPBES Stakeholder Day, organised by UNEP, in collaboration with UNESCO, UNDP and FAO, in order to further discuss how members of civil society and scientific community will get engaged in IPBES.
- Agenda of stakeholder day
- Opening and closing statements made by IUCN on behalf of the scientific community and civil society
- Report of stakeholder available here soon
First session of a Plenary of IPBES (3-7 October 2011, Nairobi, Kenya)
A Larigauderie, in her capacity as ICSU representative to IPBES, led the ICSU delegation to the first session of a plenary of IPBES (3-7 October 2011). SC-DIVERSITAS members Wolfgang Cramer, and Harold A Mooney (Chair) were part of this delegation. Membership of delegation; Opening statement made by ICSU.
ICSU (DIVERSITAS, IHDP) facilitated together with IUCN a meeting of interested non-governmental IPBES stakeholders, on 2 October 2011. See plenary statement.
ICSU (DIVERSITAS, IHDP), together with the governments of Japan and South Africa organised a successful side event on the Assessment and knowledge generation functions of IPBES, on Tuesday 4 October, 13:00-15:00. Programme of side event; Brochures on Generation of knowledge and Assessments.
DIVERSITAS and IHDP, under ICSU (the International Council for Science), represent the international scientific community on the Plenary Planning Group (PPG) established by UNEP to provide advice for the organisation of the first IPBES plenary.
Anne Larigauderie, Executive Director of DIVERSITAS, has been appointed by ICSU, as the ICSU representative in the IPBES process.
DIVERSITAS had a delegation at the three intergovernmental and multistakeholder consultations on IPBES (Malaysia 2008, Kenya 2009, Republic of Korea 2010; see DIVERSITAS opening statement).
The position of DIVERSITAS during these consultations has been the following:
The scientific community believes that IPBES can play an important role in making science more relevant, and policy making better informed by science, and sees the establishment of an IPBES as a priority.
Stakeholder Day (Nairobi, Kenya, 2 October 2011)
IUCN and ICSU co-chaired the IPBES Stakeholder Day, organised by UNEP, in collaboration with UNESCO, UNDP and FAO, on 2 October, in order to discuss how members of civil society and scientific community could get engaged in IPBES.
- Agenda of stakeholder day
- Plenary statement by stakeholders (3 October 2011)
- Proposal by stakeholders on the way to organise their input into IPBES
Additional contributions
In the margins of the formal negotiations hosted by UNEP, the role of DIVERSITAS has been:
- to inform the scientific community on progress with the IPBES consultation,
- to provide platforms for debates on IPBES, and
- to feed ideas into the formal IPBES consultation process.
Activities led on behalf of ICSU:
March 2012: Special lunch event on IPBES at the Planet under Pressure Conference: "Strengthening the use of science for policy: IPCC's lessons for IPBES"; organised by A Larigauderie, A Duraiappah, N Ash, S Arico, and M Hulmes; a UNEP/UNESCO/IHDP/DIVERSITAS/ICSU event.
February 2012: ICSU, DIVERSITAS and USGS organised a scientific workshop (Annapolis, USA, 31 Jan-2 Feb 2012) to further define the knowledge generation function of IPBES. Conclusions of this workshop are presented in Document UNEP/IPBES.MI/2/INF/11 available to delegates in Panama.
June 2011: The International Council for Science, ICSU (DIVERSITAS and IHDP) convened (10 June 2011, Paris) an informal meeting of experts representing key scientific organisations interested in IPBES in order to prepare the contribution of the scientific community to the first session of the IPBES plenary meeting. The meeting was hosted and facilitated by UNESCO.
The specific goals of this meeting were: i) to help further define possible elements for the generation of knowledge function of IPBES, and ii) to suggest how the scientific community, via its scientific organisations, might engage with IPBES in relation to this generation of knowledge function. The meeting produced a set of recommendations (available here) which has been included as one of the information documents for the IPBES October meeting (3-7 October, Nairobi, Kenya): UNEP/IPBES.MI/1/INF/11
Examples of other activities led by DIVERSITAS:
November 2011: Public Forum on IPBES, organised by the US National Committee for DIVERSITAS of the National Academy of Sciences.
March 2011: Perrings, Duraiappah, Larigauderie and Mooney: The Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Science-Policy Interface, Science 4 March 2011: 1139-1140;
October 2010: Side event on IPBES at CBD-COP10, Nagoya (IUCN- DIVERSITAS-ICSU-IHDP-UNEP);
May 2010: Side event on IPBES at CBD-SBSTTA14, Nairobi, (DIVERSITAS-IUCN-ICSU-IHDP-UNEP);
May 2010: Larigauderie and Mooney: IPBES: moving a step closer to an IPCC-like mechanism for biodiversity. 2010, COSUST, 2: 9-14;
April 2010: US consultation on IPBES (USNC DIVERSITAS, UNEP regional office North America, Washington DC);
February 2010: CBD-PreCOP10 (Nagoya, Japan); successful plenary science-policy dialog on IPBES with Japanese Vice-Minister of Environment; 300 participants (DIVERSITAS/Government of Japan/Secretariat CBD);
September 2009: Editorial by Mooney and Mace: Biodiversity policy challenges, Science 18 Sept 2009;
October 2009: Science-Policy panel on IPBES at DIVERSITAS Open Science Conference 2 and Cap Town statement supporting IPBES.
