UN's 'IPCC for nature' to fight back against destruction of natural world

International body will organise global response to protect ecosystems 'that underpin all life – including economic life'
Juliette Jowit guardian.co.uk 11 Jun 10;

World governments voted last night to set up a major new international body to spearhead the battle against the destruction of the natural world.

With growing concern about the human impacts of destruction of habitats and species from around the world, from riots over food shortages and high prices, to worsening floods, and global climate change, more than 80 governments voted to take action in the final hours of a week-long conference in Busan, South Korea.

The Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), also dubbed "the IPCC for nature", will be modelled on the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, which has been credited with driving global warming and climate change from a fringe scientific issue to mainstream public and political concern.

Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, said: "The dream of many scientists in both developed and developing countries has been made reality. Indeed, IPBES represents a major breakthrough in terms of organising a global response to the loss of living organisms and forests, freshwaters, coral reefs and other ecosystems that generate multi-trillion dollar services that underpin all life – including economic life – on Earth."

Caroline Spelman, the UK environment secretary, said: "Alongside climate change, biodiversity loss is the greatest threat we face. Our very way of life is linked to the natural world; the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink; as well as providing the habitats for the Earth's millions of species of plants and animals. IPBES will provide governments and policy makers across the world with independent and trusted scientific advice so that we can take action to protect the world's natural environment."

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, will produce regular assessments of the state of biodiversity at international, regional and "sub regional" levels, mirroring the IPCC's five-yearly global assessments of global warming and its impacts. It will also develop research and conservation in developing countries, stimulate research in areas not covered, and advise policy-makers, said Professor Bob Watson, vice chair of IPBES and chief scientist at the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs.

It will focus on "poverty alleviation, human well-being and sustainable development", he said. A recommendation to set it up will now be voted on by the UN at its meeting in September.

"It's just possible that in Busko, Korea, a significant step forward has been made towards a renewed global approach to tackle the loss of biodiversity and its consequences for the natural world and the people," said Robert Bloomfield, coordinator of the International Year of Biodiversity in the UK. "Crucially it would bring more closely together the analysis of the scientific evidence of biodiversity loss and its impact alongside the development of policy responses – this has been lacking. Then, as with the IPPC, such an overarching body would also help put biodiversity in the media spotlight – where it needs to be.

"It will be up to all the parties, including science, international governance and the media, to make sure that such a development is open to scrutiny and effective in delivering the action needed to mainstream the response required to tackle the underlying causes of a problem which has disastrous consequences if not urgently addressed."

Breakthrough in International Year of Biodiversity as Governments Give Green Light to New Gold Standard Science Policy Body
Bridging the Gap between Research and Urgent Need for Responses to Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Losses
UNEP 11 Jun 10;

Busan/Nairobi, 11 June 2010-History was made today in the South Korean port city of Busan, when governments gave the green light to an Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

The independent platform will in many ways mirror the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which has assisted in catalyzing world-wide understanding and governmental action on global warming.

The new body will bridge the gulf between the wealth of scientific knowledge- documenting accelerating declines and degradation of the natural world- and the decisive government action required to reverse these damaging trends.

Its various roles will include carrying out high quality peer reviews of the wealth of science on biodiversity and ecosystem services emerging from research institutes across the globe in order to provide 'gold standard' reports to governments.

These reports will not only cover the state, status and trends of biodiversity and ecosystems, but outline transformational policy options and responses to bring about real change in their fortunes.

An IPBES will achieve this in part by prioritizing, making sense of and bringing consistency to the welter of reports and assessments conducted by United Nations bodies; research centres, universities and others as they relate to biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UN Environment Programme (UNEP) which has coordinated this week's meeting, said: "The dream of many scientists in both developed and developing countries has been made reality. Indeed, IPBES represents a major breakthrough in terms of organizing a global response to the loss of living organisms and forests, freshwaters, coral reefs and other ecosystems that generate multi-trillion dollar services that underpin all life—including economic life—on Earth".

"It is also an important day for multilateralism in this, the UN's International Year of Biodiversity. There remained disagreements between governments as they entered this week's third and final meeting. These centred on financing for the platform up to its scope and role in building scientific assessment capacity in developing economies," he added.

"But nations put aside the smaller differences that divided them in favour of the far bigger areas of consensus that finally united them—namely the urgent need for an IPBES as a key building block towards restoring, repairing and more intelligently managing the planet's nature-based assets," said Mr. Steiner.

"I would applaud all governments for their determination and vision in writing a small-but what might one day prove a significant- new chapter in humanity's relationship with the natural world," he concluded.

Chan-Woo Kim, Director General of the Ministry of Environment, Republic of Korea who chaired the third meeting this week, said: "In the 21st century faced with many environmental challenges, the vision of 'Green Growth' should be shared in the international community. The essence of this vision is to ensure environmental sustainability while pursuing development. For this to be realized, it is crucial to have a credible, legitimate, and policy-relevant understanding on biodiversity and ecosystem services."

"Today, and in this International Year of Biodiversity which we commemorate, we finally reached an agreement to establish an Intergovernmental science-policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. This historic agreement will lay the foundation for us to have full scientific assessment for appropriate policy responses for human well-being on the Planet," said Mr. Kim.

"Busan, one of the most beautiful cities in Korea, will be remembered in the international environmental community for making a huge step forward for the establishment of the IPBES," he concluded.

Mr. Kim added: "Here I would also like to thank UNEP for its role in this important breakthrough after having diligently and professionally steered and facilitated the process towards establishing an IPBES since the first meeting in Malaysia some 18 months ago".

Today's green light, given by delegates from close to 90 countries, is now expected to be sent to the 65th session of the UN General Assembly, which opens in September, for its consideration to be formally established.

It will then be presented for endorsement by environment minister attending the UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial at its next session scheduled for Nairobi, Kenya in February 2011.

IPBES—what is it likely to do?

This week's meeting in Busan heard that there are now a myriad of global, regional and national assessments being carried out from time to time that relate to biodiversity and ecosystem services.

These include the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment; the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development; UNEP's Global Environment Outlook; the Global Biodiversity Outlook and the Global Forest Resources Assessment.

Others include the State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture; the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity and the IUCN Red List of threatened and endangered species.

While many, if not all are important, many of the findings are failing to translate into meaningful and decisive action by governments on the ground and in global and national planning.

This is in part due to different methodologies and standards operating across such assessments.

An IPBES can bring greater rigour to such assessments while bringing together their findings in order to provide governments with greater clarity and confidence on the conclusions in order to act.

Other areas include bringing to the attention of governments 'new topics' identified by science, outlining what is known and also aspects where more research is needed.

Some scientists, for example, claim that evidence that deoxygenated dead zones in the world's oceans took too long time to migrate from scientific circles into the domain and in-trays of policy-makers.

A similar argument is made concerning the pros and cons of biofuels. An IPBES could provide better early warning of such new topics to governments before decisions are taken.

While an IPBES will support some capacity building in developing countries, its main role will be to catalyze funding to assist developing country scientists and developing country assessments through, for example, harnessing funding via UN agencies; foundations and other sources.

Unraveling the precise role of animals, plants, insects and even microbes within ecosystems and their functions in terms of the services generated-from water purification to soil fertility-could also be a major thrust.

Some experts are convinced that many scientific discoveries, from the identification of new lower life forms to the fast disappearance of others, can often remain within the corridors of research institutes and universities for many years before they reach the wider world.

By that time is may be too late to act to either conserve or protect the species concerned whereas early warning might have put the species on the political radar giving it a better chance.

Scientists upbeat about global biodiversity panel
Anne Chaon Sat Yahoo News 12 Jun 10;

PARIS (AFP) – More than 90 countries have approved the creation of a scientific panel on biodiversity, the dream of many scientists around the world.

The panel will peer-review scientific research on biodiversity and ecosystems to ensure governments are receiving top-level information and advice, and are able to act more decisively to reverse various trends in the natural world.

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, as it has been called provisionally, was "the dream of many scientists", now made reality, said Achim Steiner, UN under-secretary general.

The IPBES "represents a major breakthrough in terms of organizing a global response to the loss of living organisms and forests, freshwaters, coral reefs and other ecosystems," Steiner added.

Steiner is also head of the UN Environment Programme that oversaw the talks in South Korea where the plans were approved on Friday.

Such an expert body on biodiversity has, according to many experts, become vital as the earth is on the brink of a sixth major wave of extinction.

The current rate of species extinction as a result of human activity is more than 100 times faster than the rate of natural extinction, according to the UN.

"We must be fully aware that the disappearance of biodiversity plays a decisive role in development," said Chantal Jouanno, French secretary of state for ecology, "the stakes for the future of humanity" are high, she added.

The IPBES "should enable us to measure our dependence on biodiversity and give us ways of responding," the minister said.

The panel addresses the complexity of monitoring the effect of humans on ecosystems, more difficult than monitoring climate and measuring gas emissions, Lucien Chabasson said, from a Paris-based sustainable development institute.

Until now the United States had been sceptical about subscribing to any agenda on biodiversity, fearing the creation of another bureaucratic monster and worried that it would dictate the national political agenda.

In talks, Brazil had lead a push from southern countries and is a candidate to host the future headquarters of the organisation.

The UN General Assembly in September will have to approve the decision to set up the biodiversity panel.