Five-Day IPBES Discussions
Underline Need for Serious Strengthening
of 'Science-Policy Links' to Reverse Declines
- Nairobi, 9 October 2009-Momentum
towards the establishment of a new international
body to address the loss and degradation
of the world's multi trillion dollar nature-based
assets gathered pace at a meeting of close
to 100 governments.
There was strong support
that an intergovernmental panel, similar
to the one that has catalyzed political
action on the issue of climate change, is
now needed to galvanize a step change in
respect to the management of biodiversity
and ecosystems.
Governments agreed that
there was now an urgency to strengthen the
link between science and policy so that
the knowledge being generated by researchers
across the globe gets turned into action
by governments on the ground.
Delegates, who were
meeting at the headquarters of the UN Environment
Programme (UNEP), agreed that a final meeting
would be held in 2010 on whether to establish
an Intergovernmental Panel or Platform on
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
2010 marks the International
Year of Biodiversity when governments in
2002 agreed to reverse the rate of loss
of biodiversity at the World Summit on Sustainable
Development.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General
and UNEP Executive Director, said:"
The deadline date for this decision on IPBES
is significant. This is the year when the
world had hoped to have turned the tide
on the loss of biodiversity. This however
is unlikely to be achieved which does not
undermine the goal but speaks volumes of
the need for an effective mechanism which
IPBES could represent".
"This week's meeting
has certainly moved the process a long way
forward towards that opportunity. The vast
majority of countries now agree that a body
akin to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) is now needed to translate
the science into policies for positive change,"
he said.
"Indeed, the momentum
here in Nairobi was encouraging-there is
a clear recognition that the status quo
is not an option. More discussions on the
detail, the financing, the issue of capacity
building for developing economies and the
precise role of an IPBES is now needed.
But a deadline has now been set for a full
and final decision," he said.
Robert Watson, chief
scientist at the UK's Department of Environment
Food and Rural Affairs and the chair of
the meeting, said: "This week's meeting
comes in the wake of mounting evidence of
the serious and significant economic impact
of the inadequacy of the current policy
response".
"The Economics
of Ecosystems and Biodiversity project,
which UNEP hosts and whose final report
will coincide with the biological diversity
convention's crucial meeting in Nagoya next
year, estimates that damage and degradation
of ecosystems such as forests may be costing
between $2 trillion and $5 trillion a year,"
he added.
Ibrahim Thiaw, Director
of UNEP's Division of Environmental Policy
Implementation, said: "This threatens
not only human well-being and the achievement
of the poverty-related Millennium Development
Goals but the opportunity for a low carbon,
resource efficient Green Economy for the
21st century-we urgently need a step change
in the way science and economics are translated
into transformational policy decisions."
Background:
The Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment of 2005 played a crucial role
in alerting the world to the rapid loss
of the planet's nature-based assets.
The Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment revealed that ecosystems and
biodiversity had declined more rapidly in
the past 50 years than at any other time
in human history. The four-year study on
the use of the planet's natural resources
released in 2005 noted that 60 percent of
ecosystem services - benefits from ecosystems
like water purification - have been degraded,
that about a quarter of the earth's land
is now cultivated and that human beings
use 40 to 50 percent of all available freshwater.
"The message emanating
from the Assessment is clear: unless these
problems are addressed urgently, the degradation
of ecosystem services and the irreversible
loss in biodiversity will substantially
diminish the benefits that future generations
could obtain from ecosystems," said
Angela Cropper, UNEP's deputy director during
the opening of this week's meeting.
Despite the report's
warning, the losses continue. "There
seems to be a disconnect between the findings
of the Assessment and the urgent changes
required in the policies of governments,"
she added.
The five-day gathering
of over 200 delegates from over 90 countries
was convened to find the mechanism by which
science can be linked to policy-making to
stop the degradation.
"Often governments
are called upon to make very unpopular decisions
to stop the destruction of ecosystems and
biodiversity loss. For this reason such
decisions should be supported, and such
support should be based on the best available
scientific evidence," John Michuki,
Kenya's Minister for Environment and Mineral
Resources, told the audience.
While science helps
to understand the challenges due to the
loss in biodiversity and ecosystems and
the solutions, it is increasingly clear
that the science is fragmented along specific
issues, lacks a complete overview on biodiversity
and ecosystem services and it means nothing
without the support of governments.
"Policy-makers
need to catch up with the rapidly evolving
science and the IPBES could provide governments
with a forum for creating an independent
and authoritative mechanism to fill this
gap," added Mr. Thiaw.
The meeting also announced
the International Year of Biodiversity 2010
that will include a yearlong campaign that
will encourage worldwide action to safeguard
biodiversity.
Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson
