Just in time for Christmas, botanists at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew have identified a new species of tropical mistletoe. This is just one the weird and wonderful plant and fungi species identified or re-discovered over the past few months, as part of the UN’s International Year of Biodiversity.

Helixanthera schizocalyx was originally found in 2008, on a research expedition near the summit of Mount Mabu, in northern Mozambique. Colin Congdon, an East African butterfly specialist recognised the mistletoe as something totally unique from montane flora in Malawi and neighbouring Tanzania. Scientists at Kew later confirmed it as a new plant species. This hairless, parasitic shrub, native to wet montane forest, was prevoiously only known from 5 collections from the same area. Its leaves are thought to be adapted for insect – rather than bird- pollination, making the Helixanthera genus different from other members of the Loranthaceae (tropical mistletoe) family. For more on Kew’s amazing discoveries in 2010, see the Kew Gardens Science & Conservation pages.

The BES would like to wish a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all readers of the Ecology & Policy Blog! We will return on 4th January 2011.

Plans for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to begin setting up the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) were formally announced at a meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York this week.

The idea to establish the IPBES was first discussed following the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment reports released in 2005, in which devastating levels of biodiversity loss worldwide were highlighted. It is thought that the panel will be modelled on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and will play a major role in shaping global environmental policy. As outlined in previous UN meetings, the IPBES will provide independent advice and scientific evidence on the state and trends of biodiversity for policy makers worldwide. It will also carry out peer-reviews on scientific literature to establish a ‘gold standard’ for reporting of biodiversity to policy makers.

Professor Bob Watson, Chief Scientific Advisor to Defra endorsed this historic agreement, expressing his hopes that: “this new platform will help to mobilise the world’s scientific community, and bring scientists and policy-makers together, to find solutions to these problems.”.

“IPBES has the potential to now raise global understanding of the threats we face… and empower governments to make policies to counter them, based on solid and integral scientific evidence.”, he added.

The UK will provide £2 million towards the development of the scientific body over the next four years. However, Caroline Spelman, the Secretary of State for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, sees this as a welcome step forwards in tackling global biodiversity loss and restoring natural ecosystems. In a statement to Defra she said: “IPBES will give trusted, independent advice to governments and policy makers across the world, helping them take the best action to protect the world’s natural environment. The creation of IPBES is a triumph of many people’s hard work and a great way to bring the International Year of Biodiversity to a close.”.

Plans are due to be finalised by environment ministers at UNEP’s global ministerial meeting in early 2011.

The Guardian last week published an article by George Monbiot and Guillaume Chapron, a researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, calling for readers to nominate key actions which can make a significant difference to halting biodiversity loss worldwide. The authors are seeking actions which ‘make a major contribution to protecting a particular species or ecosystem and that are ’strongly and widely supported by scientific evidence published in academic journals; but that are politically costly or opposed by special interest groups.’

Submit ideas to the Biodiversity100 campaign or see what others have suggested at the Guardian website. Readers have been given one month to submit their ideas, before the final list of 100 tasks, for presentation to G20 governments, is decided.

Organisations around the UK are preparing to celebrate International Biodiversity Day, taking place tomorrow, 22 May. Celebrations began in Wales yesterday, with the start of a three day festival to highlight biodiversity to the public and to encourage individuals to ‘do one thing’ for nature. The BES and Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (IEEM) joined a range of organisations at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, for the launch of the event, exhibiting materials to museum visitors.

Jane Davidson, Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing at the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG), delivered a speech to exhibitors and invited guests, in which she highlighted the Government’s track record in conserving biodiversity and ecosystem services in Wales. However, the Minister made it clear that the ecological community couldn’t underestimate the challenge of keeping in place some of the structures set up for species monitoring and conservation, given the difficult economic climate. However, the Minister assured the audience that she would do all she could to ensure that the importance of biodiversity is recognised across the WAG.

Both the Minister, and Rhys Jones, a BBC wildlife television presenter who gave a brief address after Jane Davidson’s speech, emphasised the importance of communicating the importance of biodiversity to the public at large. Rhys Jones said that ‘people look at biodiversity through giant binoculars’, understanding biodiversity as something that is ‘elsewhere’; on African plains or tropical rainforests. People do not appreciate the diversity of life around them; in their own back gardens for example. Jane Davidson emphasised the need to ‘keep the vision positive’, highlighting the challenges faced by biodiversity but in such a way as to engage, not alienate people, with the scale of the problem.

The BES and IEEM took the opportunity to launch a copy of our position statement on ‘halting UK biodiversity loss’, in Welsh. You can download a copy from our website.

International Biodiversity Day

Tomorrow, a range of activities will take place around the UK and around the globe, highlighting and raising awareness of the importance of biodiversity to our lives. The Natural History Museum, London, is organising a full day of events, including theatre and art performances and the production of a biodiversity day themed elephant for the ‘Elephant Parade’. The Guardian has today published its top ten picks of events from around the world. To find out more about events near you in the UK, access the International Year of Biodiversity UK network website.