Prepared by 150 experts from 50 countries, the IPBES report is expected to be released in May
The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) announced at the 14th Conference of the Parties (COP 14) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which takes place until November 29 in Egypt, progress in the preparation of the first global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services related to the provision of food, clean air and clean water.
Scheduled to be released in May 2019, the report will be the first of its kind since the publication of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in 2005, at the initiative of the World Resources Institute (WRI), the World Bank and the United Nations Environment Programs. (UNEP, in English) and for Development (UNDP).
In addition to being a new synthesis on the state of biodiversity and ecosystem services on a global scale and their contributions to the well-being of humanity, the global assessment will be the first of an intergovernmental nature, according to IPBES.
“The loss of species, ecosystems and genetic diversity is already a global and generational threat to human well-being. Protecting nature's invaluable contributions to people will be a decisive challenge in the coming decades. Policies, efforts and actions – at all levels – will only be successful, however, if they are based on the best available knowledge and evidence. This is what the IPBES Global Assessment will provide,” Robert Watson, president of the body often called “IPCC for biodiversity,” said in a statement.
The report was prepared by 150 experts from 50 countries, with a balanced representation between natural and social sciences, and had additional contributions from over 250 experts who collaborate with IPBES.
Among the 150 experts who participate as authors of the report are Brazilians Christina Adams, from the University of São Paulo (USP); Gabriel Henrique Lui, from the Ministry of the Environment; Maria Manuela Ligeti Carneiro da Cunha, from USP; Pedro Henrique Santin Brancalion, also from USP; Rafael Dias Loyola, from the Federal University of Goiás (UFG), Eduardo Sonnewend Brondizio, from Indiana University, in the United States; and Bernardo Baeta Neves Strassburg, from the International Sustainability Institute (ISS).
The authors were selected through a call process by IPBES so that the 130 member countries of the platform – in addition to accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and multilateral bodies that deal with biodiversity and ecosystem services – nominated experts to participate in the preparation of the document.
After nominations by member countries, a multidisciplinary panel of IPBES experts analyzed all applications and selected the nominees. Some of the selection criteria were the qualifications of the candidates, the establishment of a regional balance – so that all regions of the world were represented – and gender and the proposition that, for every 10 selected, eight should have been nominated by governments and the other two by accredited NGOs or multilateral organizations.
“The reports prepared by IPBES always aim to bring together as many countries as possible. But it sometimes happens that not all member countries of the platform nominate their representatives,” he said. Carlos Joly, professor at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp) and program coordinator BIOTA-FAPESP.
Joly coordinated the Multidisciplinary Panel of Experts in its first years of existence, alongside Australian Mark Londsdeale, from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), and is a member of the coordination of the Brazilian Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (BPBES, in the English acronym), whose creation was inspired by IPBES.
Developed over the last three years and at a total cost of more than US$2,4 million, the IPBES Global Assessment is based on almost 15 thousand bibliographic references, including scientific articles published in international and national journals not only in English, in addition to academic theses and government reports.
According to IPBES, the global assessment is the first to analyze and include knowledge, issues and priorities of traditional and indigenous communities and also builds on its assessment reports released in recent years. These include the thematic report on degradation and restoration of degraded lands, released in March this year, and the regional assessment reports for Africa, the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe and Central Asia.
“The global report will not be a simple summation of regional reports because it will address global issues, such as the impacts of trade and other global processes on biodiversity and ecosystem services and the impacts of climate change, invasive species, pollution and environmental changes. in the use of land and sea in different ecosystems,” Joly told FAPESP Agency.
The assessment covers all terrestrial ecosystems – except Antarctica –, inland waters and open oceans and assesses changes in biodiversity and ecosystems over the last 50 years and their implications for the economy, livelihoods, food security and quality of life of the world's population. . Furthermore, it points out political options and likely paths in the coming decades if current trends continue.
IPBES expects the report to serve as a basis for formulating better public policies and encouraging more effective actions by governments in the coming decades and helping to assess countries' progress in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Goals Aichi Biodiversity Agreement and the Paris Agreement on climate change.
At the next Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP-CBD), scheduled to take place in 2020, for example, countries will have to demonstrate their progress in achieving measures to halt the loss of biodiversity, as established in the so-called Aichi Targets .
“Much of the data that will be used by countries for this purpose will be taken from regional and global diagnoses prepared by IPBES,” said Joly.
“The data generated by the global assessment and the reports generated by IPBES will be complementary to those produced by national reports that countries that are signatories to the CBD, but that are not yet members of IPBES, will have to prepare”, he said.
The global assessment report will be finalized and presented at the seventh plenary session of IPBES, scheduled to take place from April 29 to May 4, 2019 in Paris, France, when representatives of the body's 130 member countries will meet to discuss and approve it.
A detailed summary of the report will also be released on the occasion, aimed at public policy makers, highlighting the main conclusions of the document.
