ECOSF Participates in the 3rd IPBES Plenary Session at Bonn Germany

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ECO Science Foundation (ECOSF) is an accredited Stakeholder/Observer member of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) since 2013. The third session of IPBES was held in Bonn, Germany, from 12 to 17 January 2015. On behalf of ECOSF, the session was participated by the President ECOSF Prof. Dr. Manzoor H. Soomro. He attended the Plenary including opening session, the meetings of Regional Experts Group for Asia & Pacific and Stakeholders Engagement Forum. ECOSF during 2014 nominated 14 experts from ECO member states for various deliverables; and in the first call for experts in 2015, seven experts from Pakistan, Iran and Turkey have been nominated for different IPBES deliverables.

The main report of the Plenary as adopted is available on the website of the platform (http://ipbes.net/images/documents/plenary/third/working/3_18/IPBES_3_18_Advance.pdf), however some glimpses of the 3rd Plenary are shared below:

The session was attended by representatives of 145 countries and an equal number of Stakeholder/Observer Organizations including ECOSF. The session was opened by the Chair of the Plenary, Dato Dr. Zakri Abdul Hamid, calling the event a landmark in the history of the Platform to date. He said it was an opportunity to reflect on achievements & lessons learned, and to continue planning for the years to come. Recalling the achievements of the first two sessions of the plenary in establishing the Platform's procedures and structures and adopting an initial work programme, he expressed satisfaction at the progress made so far on the 18 deliverables of the work programme and the number of experts that were with great enthusiasm contributing their time and expertise to the Platform. The current rate of decline in biodiversity, 100 to 1,000 times greater than the natural rate, made plain the critical importance of the Platform in providing policy makers with sound scientific information as the basis for policy-making aimed at reversing biodiversity loss, raising awareness of and fostering appreciation for the importance of biodiversity and the ecosystem services that it provided and building the capacity of developing countries to measure and assess biological and genetic resources and value ecosystem services, he said.

Earlier, welcoming remarks were made by Ms. Anne Larigauderie, Executive Secretary of the Platform Secretariat.

Ms. Larigauderie thanked the Plenary for her appointment as Executive Secretary and said that considerable progress had been made in implementing the work programme for 2014-2018, with all of its 18 deliverables at various stages of progress, and the year had seen the establishment of 14 expert groups, the conduct of 20 meetings and the selection of more than 500 experts from among nearly 1,700 nominees. Those experts had already contributed their time and had expressed the desire to continue their involvement.

Ms. Hendricks, the German Minister for Environment as Chief Guest said in her speech that the German Government was honoured to host the current session and greatly valued the trust placed in it as the host of the Platform. Biodiversity and ecosystem services, she said, were critical to sustainable development, yet the loss of biodiversity and intact ecosystems continued unabated. To halt that, policy makers needed the Platform to provide detailed proposals for action and specific recommendations on how to achieve the Aichi biodiversity targets by 2020 and implement the post-2015 development agenda. She further said that, stakeholder participation was critical to the success of the Platform. To promote it, Germany had established a national coordination office aimed at promoting participation by scientists, policy makers and citizens, and it hoped that the Plenary would adopt a stakeholder engagement strategy at the current session. Ms. Hendricks assured the Plenary that Germany would give particular consideration to the needs of partners, for example in the context of projects supported under the environment ministry's International Climate Initiative. Impressed by the progress to date and pleased with the efforts of the secretariat, Germany would do all it could to support the Platform, including through its voluntary contribution of 1 million Euros per year to the Platform trust fund. In closing, she called on all to maintain the momentum and to adopt decisions allowing the Platform to reach its full potential.

Ms. McGlade, speaking on behalf of FAO, UNDP, UNEP and UNESCO, said that the partnership between those organizations and the Platform was emblematic of efforts across the United Nations to deliver as one.

Mr. Nimptsch the Mayor of Bonn, welcomed the participants to Bonn and to what he said was an auspicious venue for the current session. As was the Federal Government, Bonn was committed to biodiversity and to its role as the Platform's host. Urging participants to be ambitious at the current session, he expressed the hope that they would find time to see Bonn and its green surroundings and that they would take home with them a feeling of "Freude", or joy, a sentiment that featured in both the Bonn city motto and Ludwig van Beethoven's ninth symphony.

Following above welcoming remarks, representatives speaking on behalf of regional groups, stakeholders that had met in preparation for the current meeting and multilateral environmental agreements made general statements in which they spoke of the progress of the Platform to date, the activities of those on behalf of whom they spoke in support of the Platform and their expectations for the current meeting and the future implementation of the Platform.

The Plenary also heard a presentation from Mr. Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, on the experience of the Panel's fifth assessment and the findings presented in the report on that assessment, and that it would consider a non-paper containing draft decisions that had been circulated on 30 December 2014.

Stakeholder Engagement Strategy

The Plenary discussed agenda items 8(a) Communication and Outreach Strategy, and 8(b) Stakeholder engagement strategy, together. The draft communication and outreach strategy (IPBES/3/15 and IPBES/3/INF/9, sect. I) and the policy on the use of the logo (IPBES/3/INF/9, sect. II) were before the Plenary. The Plenary was invited to consider both strategies, and in particular the two proposed options for oversight of the development, operation and implementation of the stakeholder engagement strategy.

In the ensuing discussion participants broadly welcomed the documents, saying that their consideration should be completed urgently. There was a difference of opinion, however, concerning oversight of the stakeholder engagement strategy. Following are some glimpses of the meeting.