Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity Ecosystem Services (IPBES) will officially and publicly release a three-year long, UN-backed study on May 6 2019, at the UNESCO world headquarters in Paris, to representatives of 130 governments. This report has been prepared by 150 leading international experts (across the natural and social sciences) from 50 countries, with contributions from another 250 experts working for IPBES, at a total cost of more than US$2.4 million.
 
This study is the first global assessment that systematically examines global biodiversity and ecosystems, incorporating issues and priorities based on indigenous and local knowledge. It will provide an integrated overview of where does the world currently stand, vis-à-vis key international goals, like the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
 
In examining the underlying causes of ecosystem and biodiversity change, along with the implications for people, policy options and possible future pathways and other scenarios, if current trends continue over the next three decades, the study will provide a definitive new global synthesis of the state of nature, ecosystems and nature’s contributions to people.
 
This will be the first report since the landmark Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was published in 2005, and the first ever that is intergovernmental. It builds on earlier reports, for instance, the Land Degradation and Restoration Assessment and the Regional Assessment Reports for Africa, the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe and Central Asia, released in March, 2018.
 
The assessment will cover the following aspects:

• All land-based ecosystems (except Antarctica), inland water and open oceans
• Evaluation of changes over the last 50 years and resultant implications for economies, livelihoods, food security and quality of life
• Exploration of impacts of trade and other global processes on biodiversity and ecosystem services
• Ranking relative impacts and challenges of climate change (invasive species, sea/land use and pollution)
• Identifies priority gaps in available knowledge
• Projection of what biodiversity would look like, decades later, under six future scenarios:
  Economic Optimism, Regional Competition, Global Sustainability, Business as Usual, Regional Sustainability and Reformed Markets
• Assessment of policy, technology, governance and behaviour changes as well as the pathways to reach global goals, based on synergies and trade-offs between food production, water security, energy and infrastructure expansion, climate change mitigation, nature conservation and economic development

In addition to these elements, the global assessment will:

• Provide a road map and outline key elements of people-nature relationships
• Highlight the current status and trends in nature, nature’s contributions to people and drivers of change
• Assess progress towards meeting the Aichi Targets, SDGs and the Paris Agreement
• Explore plausible future scenarios for nature and people until 2050
• Focus on scenarios, pathways and options that lead to sustainable futures
• Showcase opportunities and challenges for decision-makers at all levels across contexts

 
The expected impacts of the IPBES Global Assessment are:

• Provide an agreed, evidence-based knowledge base to inform policy making the next decade
• Contribute an analysis of implications of loss of biodiversity for achieving global goals
• Offer multi-dimensional valuations of common global assets and how to sustain them
• Recognise and emphasise the role of each actor in improving ecosystems and the importance of aligning efforts
• Raise awareness of the importance of transformational multi-sectoral policies and governance structures, including effects of policies and other indirect drivers at a global scale and options to improve trans-regional policy-making
• Provide a starting point for in-depth analyses of the roles of actions and their global implications

 
The study will be presented to the widest spectrum of decision-makers, including government and business leaders, civil society groups, indigenous peoples and communities. To ensure the highest possibility of accuracy, credibility and policy relevance, it will be extensively reviewed, through an open and transparent process, by the stakeholders.
 
Sustainability
March 28, 2019
 
 

source https://indiaoutbound.org/global-assessment-report-on-biodiversity-and-ecosystem-services/