National IPBES stakeholders meet in Bonn
1st June 2022 — On the 1st and 2nd June 2022, the German IPBES Coordination Unit of the DLR-PT will host the 9th National IPBES Forum. The forums serve the national preparations for the next plenary meeting of the World Biodiversity Council (IPBES).
Since spring 2014, the German IPBES Coordination Unit has been located at DLR-PT on behalf of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Consumer Protection (BMUV) and the and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Its central task is to work at the interface between politics and science. In this way, it not only promotes the integration of technical expertise into the work processes of IPBES, but supports the political consultation and decision-making processes necessary at national level as well. Thus the experts at DLR-PT also help to develop scope for shaping research and environmental policy, enabling Germany to make visible national and international contributions to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity.
Experts prepare government consultation
On behalf of the BMUV and BMBF, the Coordination Office analyses the currently relevant international IPBES work processes. Crucial scientific activities will be developed together with national experts in preparation for the government consultations at the ninth IPBES General Assembly in early July 2022. The results of the joint discussions, involving experts from ministries, research and academia, subordinate authorities and agencies, as well as the private sector and non-governmental institutions, will be processed by the Coordination Unit immediately after the two-day forum and made available for departmental discussions to further prepare the government for the intergovernmental consultations in early July. The Coordination Unit has invited relevant IPBES experts to support this science policy process. Furthermore, the IPBES Secretariat and national experts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will be present at the 9th National IPBES Forum.
The scientific working documents to be presented for adoption for intergovernmental deliberations at the 9th IPBES Plenary are:
- the Summary for Policymaking (SPM) for the IPBES Thematic Assessment on Sustainable Use of Wild Species ("Sustainable Use")
- the Summary for Policymaking (SPM) for the IPBES Methodological Assessment on Multiple Values of Nature ("Values")
- the scoping report for the IPBES methodological assessment on the impact of business on and dependence on nature's contributions to people ("Business & Biodiversity")
Furthermore, the processes for a possible cooperation of IPBES with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose German coordination office is also located at DLR-PT, as well as the role of IPBES in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will be presented.
The forum will be rounded off with a poster exhibition on current or planned IPBES-relevant topics.
For more than twenty years, the IPCC Coordination Unit has been supporting the German Federal Government on behalf of the BMBF and the Federal Foreign Office, acting as a point of contact for government, science and the public on IPCC matters. Its staff promote the transfer of knowledge between climate research and climate policy; together with colleagues from Austria and Switzerland, they provide German translations of the most important IPCC publications. Specialist colleagues from DLR-PT in the field of environment and sustainability regularly review drafts of IPCC reports.