To the Editor — The fifth session of the Plenary of IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services), which took place in Bonn on 7–10 March 2017, made significant progress in several important areas of its first work programme. It approved a new approach for recognizing and working with indigenous and local knowledge; a capacity building rolling plan; a process for developing a second work programme, to be launched in 2019; the terms of reference for the first review of IPBES; a scoping report for a future assessment on the sustainable use of wild species; a budget for 2017; and a host country, Colombia, for its sixth session, in March 2018.

This sixth session will review the four regional assessments of biodiversity and ecosystem services (Africa, Asia-Pacific, Americas, and Europe and Central Asia) and the land degradation and restoration assessment, with a view to approving their summaries for policymakers and accepting their chapters. It will also consider the initiation of three assessments approved as part of the first work programme (sustainable use of wild species, values and valuation, and invasive species), a revised final budget for 2018 and the findings of the internal review.

We would like to thank the more than 1,000 experts active in IPBES who have generously contributed their time and ideas since 2014. We have reported to this fifth session that this represents an in-kind collective contribution to IPBES of a minimum of US$14 million since 20141.

We would also like to encourage the scientific community, along with governments, to become involved in the peer review of the draft assessments. The second order draft of the chapters of the land degradation and restoration, Africa, Asia-Pacific and Europe and Central Asia assessments, and the first order draft of the summaries for policymakers, can be reviewed from 1 May until 26 June 2017 by registering on the IPBES web site to receive the drafts (http://www.ipbes.net/sod-review). The second order draft of the assessment of the Americas can be reviewed from 29 May until 24 July 2017. Peer review by the scientific community remains crucial for the quality and credibility of IPBES2.