The report of the joint British Ecologcial Society – UK Biodiversity Research Advisory Group (BRAG) meeting on the future of the UK National Ecosystem Assessment and Intergovernmental Science – Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is now available. The session was held as part of the BES Annual Meeting at the University of Sheffield, on 13th September.

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.

Last week and international meeting of UN delegates gave the ‘green light’ to a global panel on ecosystem services and biodiversity.

The Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), expected to be formally endorsed in 2011, is likely to modelled on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

One of the main roles of the IPBES will be to conduct peer reviews of scientific literature in order to provide governments with ‘gold standards’ reports, and to assess appropriate government responses.

The formation of the IPBES has been hailed as a “major breakthrough” by the executive director of the UN Environment Programme, Achim Steiner. It the culmination of work which began in Paris in 2006, following suggestions made in the UN’s Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in 2005.

Plans to set up the IPBES are set to be formally established by the 65th session of the UN General Assembly, which opens in September.