The 2019 review of IPBES and future priorities: reaching beyond assessment to enhance policy impact

Abstract

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is an independent scientific body focused on assessing the state of the world's ecosystem services and biodiversity. IPBES members agreed in 2017 that a review of the Platform's first work programme should be undertaken by an independent panel examining all aspects of IPBES' workincluding implementation of the four functions of IPBES; policies, operating principles and procedures; governance structure and arrangements; communication, stakeholder engagement and partnerships; and funding mechanisms. The review found that for IPBES to have its anticipated transformative impact: • All four functions of IPBES (i.e. assessment, knowledge generation, policy support, capacity building), with better communication, must be significantly strengthened, integrated and delivered together; • The policy aspects of IPBES work need to be strengthened and greater emphasis needs to be placed on the co-design and co-production of assessments; • A more strategic and collaborative approach to stakeholders is needed; and • IPBES must develop a more sustainable financial base. Given those changes, IPBES, as an embryonic boundary organization, can become the key influencing organization in the global landscape of biodiversity and ecosystem services organizations, helping thus to catalyze transformative change in the relationship between people and the rest of nature.

The science-policy interface on ecosystems and people: challenges and opportunities

“…IPCC played a key role in informing governments from local to global scales, businesses, civil society organizations and the global public on the scientific knowledge that can be used to address the climate crisis. IPBES, however, has striven to be more inclusive in terms of regional, cultural and disciplinary diversity, bringing the voices from a range of stakeholders, making visible Indigenous peoples and local communities to help inform the IPBES products, and to disseminate the findings (Stevance et al 2020).…”

“…Science-policy interfaces can help speed up linking science findings to policy development and implementation (Crouzat et al 2019;Krug et al 2020;Stevance et al 2020). Researchers working at the interface of science and policy have a crucial and urgent role to play at generating the knowledge decision makers need to act swiftly (Crouzat et al 2019;Gustafsson et al 2019;Krug et al 2020;Stevance et al 2020;Washbourne et al 2020). This is particularly relevant for the case of the linkages between ecosystems and people, and the need to speedily limit climate change and biodiversity loss below threatening levels.…”

“…Disruptive events like the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic demonstrate the magnitude of the impacts from unsustainable and inappropriate management of ecosystems, yet provide opportunities to build a more resilient planet (Gordon 2020). Action to revert current trends in conservation, and to promote wise use and management of nature is deeply felt and urgently needed where science-policy interfaces have a key role to play (Crouzat et al 2019;Krug et al 2020;Stevance et al 2020).…”

“…The media coverage of a result of the IPBES assessment, on the up to 1,000,000 species of animals and plants possibly at risk of extinction in the nearterm (IPBES 2019; Díaz et al 2019), have put for the first time ever the nature crisis in the news at least 2,200 different news sites across 115 countries, in 35 languages, reaching an audience of 3.26 billion people. 1 Communication with different audiences and stakeholders has been shown to be critical to the success and impact of IPBES (Krug et al 2020;Stevance et al 2020). Sustained participatory interactions have been shown to be critical for other sciencepolicy interfaces operating at national scales, e.g.…”

“…A robust science-policy interface is one that successfully sparks creativity and novel insights and opportunities, by bringing together diverse teams and actors (Sala and Torchio 2019). Stevance et al (2020) show how diverse stakeholders from across countries and sectors are brought together by a global platform such as IPBES. Gustafsson et al (2019) identify the crucial importance of intersectional boundary work at the boundaries between senior and junior experts, between science and policy and between scientific knowledge and indigenous and local knowledge.…”