Contrary to the impression given by Axel Hochkirch and colleagues (Nature 516, 170; 2014), the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is expected to approve a policy on conflicts of interest for authors at this week's third plenary in Bonn, Germany.
The IPBES has rules and procedures for nominating and selecting experts from a wide variety of sectors to ensure credibility and transparency (see go.nature.com/zh1osy). Accordingly, these experts are nominated by governments and stakeholders and selected by our Multidisciplinary Expert Panel.
Our interim conflict-of-interest policy is in operation for the pollinators assessment (completed declaration forms available from the secretariat on request). The scientists from agrochemical companies mentioned by Hochkirch et al. were selected in their capacity as independent scientists to provide objective input for the pollination report. Moreover, independent peer review of all IPBES texts guards against any bias.
Reports by other global and regional assessment panels routinely include authors from commercial sectors — for example, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development. The latter was even accused of being unbalanced when industrial scientists withdrew from the assessment process (see Nature 451, 223–224; 2008).
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Larigauderie, A. IPBES responds on conflicts of interest. Nature 517, 271 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/517271e
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/517271e
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