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Discussions Necessary on Requirement for
an Intergovernmental Scientific Body for
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
Putrajaya/Nairobi, 12
November 2008 - Close to 100 nations concluded
a review of how science can better guide
policy by examining the merits of a new
scientific body able to put the loss of
biodiversity, ecosystems and their multi-trillion
dollar services at the top of the political
agenda.
Recommendations on the
final day included one to carry out a preliminary
‘gap analysis’ on where the link between
scientists and those that make policy decisions
at a national, regional and global level
might be strengthened and for the Executive
Director of the UN Environment Programme
(UNEP) to present toe outcome of this week
to UNEP’s Governing Council/Global Ministerial
Environment Forum - the big gathering of
environment ministers scheduled for mid-February
2009.
The meeting also recommended
that the UNEP Governing Council “requests
the Executive Director to “convene a second
Intergovernmental Multi-stakeholder Meeting
on an Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform
on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.”
And added:” With the
view to strengthening and improving the
science-policy interface for biodiversity
and ecosystem services for human well-being,
including consideration of a new science-policy
platform.
The nations, gathering
over three days in the Malaysian city of
Putrajaya, were weighing the effectiveness
of existing mechanisms to translate science
into policy- action by governments including
the merits of establishing an Intergovernmental
Panel or Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem
Services (IPBES.
It reflects growing
concern that the current international response
is failing to galvanize a real and meaningful
response to the decline of the globe’s economically
important natural or nature-based assets
from species and soils to forests and fisheries.
The failure is in part as a result of a
fragmented landscape of reports and assessments
by a multitude of organizations each coming
to the issue from different approaches and
with different methods.
“The end result is that
a policy-makers lack the validated, coherent
and actionable guide to what is the most
sensible tack for turning around biodiversity
loss and ecosystem degradation,” said Achim
Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environment
Programme which convened the Malaysia meeting.
“An intergovernmental
body, perhaps mirroring the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change which has put global
warming high on the political radar, is
one of the options that represents a possible
way forward,” he added.
“One thing that was
not in doubt here was an overwhelming acceptance
that business and usual is unlikely to stem
the tide of decline of the Earth’s natural
world and natural assets and that some kind
of urgent response is long overdue - that
a transition to a Green Economy must put
scientific and sustainable use of these
resources amongst the top political priorities,”
said Mr Steiner.
The nations meeting
in Malaysia today requested a ‘gaps’ report
aimed at pin pointing where the problems
in the current response to biodiversity
and ecosystem decline actually rest.
Some of those could
include the current gaps in knowledge on
the precise link between biodiversity, healthy
ecosystems and thus livelihoods.
In other words how many
species can disappear from a forest or fertile
soils before they collapse or become ever
less productive?
Meanwhile many experts
believe that an intergovernmental panel
or platform could provide early warning
of biologically-related developments of
regional or global significance years in
advance of their public emergence.
Some experts cite the
case of biofuels, an area that has triggered
fierce and polarized public debate in recent
months. The issues surrounding biofuels
or certain kinds of biofuels have been known
to scientists for several decades, but only
now are hitting the headlines.
Similar arguments can
be made for the disappearance of amphibians
as a result of viruses or perhaps climate
change and for acidification of the oceans
and loss of coral reefs as a result of the
build up of C02 in the atmosphere and the
seas.
Others believe that
some of the greatest ‘gaps’ exist in developing
countries where there is an urgent and practical
need to strengthen the knowledge, skills
and capacity to carry out biodiversity and
ecosystem assessments in the first place.
Nations this week requested
that such a gaps analysis, able to demonstrate
the need or otherwise of an international
panel or some other mechanism, should be
presented before a global gathering of the
world’s environment ministers.
The meeting - UNEP’s
Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment
Forum- is scheduled to take place in Nairobi,
Kenya in mid-February 2009.
Notes to Editors
Documents for the meeting, which ran from
10 to 12 November at the Putrajaya International
Convention Centre, can be found at http://www.ipbes.net/en/index.aspx
UNEP Global Environment Outlook-4 http://www.unep.org/geo/geo4/media/
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/index.aspx
UNEP Green Economy Initiative http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy/
Nick Nuttall, UNEP
