Five years of IPBES - reflecting the achievements and challenges and identifying needs for its review towards a 2nd work programme

 International Workshop of the UFZ Science-Policy Expert Group, in cooperation with iDiv

17th-19th October 2017

Venue

German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv)
Deutscher Platz 5e, Leipzig, Germany

Workshop Background and Goals

On October 17th-19th 2017, a group of scholars and practitioners gathered to participate in the international workshop ‘Five years of IPBES – reflecting the achievements and challenges and identifying needs for its review towards a 2nd work programme’ in Leipzig, Germany, to critically reflect on the work in progress of the Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). 

IPBES has now been active for about 5 years, conducting an ambitious work programme serving different functions and with diverse challenges for the governance of its processes. As part of the preparation for its second work programme, the 2016 Plenary meeting of IPBES launched a review process to “evaluate the effectiveness of IPBES as a science-policy interface” (Decision IPBES/5/22).

With this workshop, the UFZ Science-Policy Expert Group in cooperation with iDiv, brought together scholars working on global biodiversity and ecosystems service governance, environmental assessments and other interfacing activities, scientists that have been or are active in IPBES activities, and IPBES body members.  The workshop provided an opportunity for these diverse participants to collectively reflect on the work on IPBES thus far, as well as the research conducted on it, in order to identify needs for the IPBES review process.

The objectives of the workshop were to:
• Discuss the current status of IPBES (with a focus on procedures and governance challenges)
• Get an overview about recent research on the emergence, processes and institutional arrangements of IPBES
• Identify potential needs for the ongoing IPBES review, and
• Develop options so that scholars can further link their work on IPBES to inform the review process
 

Contact

Isabel Díaz Reviriego