IUCN has contributed to the negotiation process for the establishment of IPBES since 2008, and its extensive experience with science, knowledge and policy tools, as well as its nature as a multi-stakeholder platform, put IUCN at the heart of the civil society involvement in the IPBES development.

“IPBES encompasses relations between scientists and other actors in the policy process, and allows for exchanges and co-evolution, while also aiming to enrich decision-making at different scales,” says Cyrie Sendashonga, Head of the IUCN Delegation to the First Plenary Session to build IPBES and Director of Programme and Policy Group/Head of Global Policy Unit. “IUCN is ready, willing and able to support the work and governance of IPBES by mobilizing the involvement of the scientists, conservation organizations, businesses and other actors of civil society, in addition to governments.”

IPBES is expected to be fully established at the end of two plenary sessions. Currently taking place now, the first session will close 7 October 2011. Based on the work achieved  at the first session, the second session, to be held in early 2012, will determine the design and detailed work programme of IPBES.

Key issues of the First Plenary Session include:
• Establishment of IPBES IUCN strongly supports the operationalized establishment of IPBES in 2012 as a global mechanism to further strengthen the science-policy interface on biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being.
• Which room for civil society in the house of IPBES? On the second day of the First Plenary Meeting, delegates addressed the design of IPBES. IUCN supported the proposal to consider the role and full participation of non-governmental stakeholders in the platform as major knowledge providers and central users of the products IPBES is to provide.
• Non-governmental actors united for a role in IPBES IUCN has advocated for  a common role for both scientific and civil society organizations, both as providers and end users of knowledge. During the opening of the First Plenary Session, these organizations stressed that their engagement is crucial for the relevance, impact and legitimacy of the platform.

Spokespeople:
Cyrie Sendashonga, Head of the IUCN Delegation to the First Plenary Session to build IPBES and Director of Programme and Policy Group/Head of Global Policy Unit, t: +41 79 410 49 01 cyriaque.sendashonga@iucn.org

Material for the Media:
https://www.iucn.org/about/work/programmes/ecosystem_management/ipbes/1st_session_plenary.cfm

For more information contact:
Anete Berzina, IUCN Communications Specialist,
t: +32 2 739 1001, m: +32 476 055 314, anete.berzina@iucn.org

Maggie Roth, IUCN Media Relations,
m: +1 202 262 5313, maggie.roth@iucn.org

About IUCN
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