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Urgent need to strengthen the international commitment to IPBES

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 1, Article number: 0197 (2017) Cite this article

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To the Editor — Accelerated changes in biodiversity worldwide, a threat as dire to society as climate change, have driven governments across the world to create the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Scientists have risen to the challenge, thousands of us volunteer between 10 and 80% of our time to assess the scientific literature with rigor, to support urgent international policy objectives. In March 2017, 645 representatives from 121 countries and many organizations gathered in Bonn for the IPBES fifth plenary. The first IPBES assessment on pollination, reflected by leading scientific journals1,2, is already showing policy impacts3,4 and six important assessments are underway. The plenary is still to decide when to launch three approved assessments on valuation of biodiversity and its benefits, sustainable use of wild species, and invasive alien species.

IPBES is currently working at its full capacity into the ongoing regional (Africa, Asia Pacific, Americas, Europe and Central Asia) and land degradation and restoration assessments to be presented to the plenary in 2018 and into the global assessment to be presented in 2019. Future undertaking of the three pending assessments would enhance the contribution of IPBES towards maintaining populations of wild species through their sustainable management, addressing different worldviews across countries and stakeholder groups that may hold conflicting views on the value of nature and its contributions to people, and handling the threats of invasive alien species to biodiversity and to society at large.

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References

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  3. Convention on Biological Diversity Strategic Actions to Enhance the Implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 and the Achievement of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, Including With Respect to Mainstreaming and the Integration of Biodiversity Within and Across Sectors (UN, 2016); http://go.nature.com/2qxCD34

  4. Declaration on the Coalition of the Willing on Pollinators (2016); www.promotepollinators.org

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia, 58090, Mexico

    Patricia Balvanera

  2. Basque Centre for Climate Change, Bilbao, 48940, Spain

    Unai Pascual

  3. Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, 48013, Spain

    Unai Pascual

  4. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal (IMBIV-CONICET), Córdoba, 5000, Argentina

    Sandra Diaz

  5. FCEFyN, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, CC 495, Córdoba, 5000, Argentina

    Sandra Diaz

  6. Natural Resources and Environment Unit, The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Pretoria, 0001, South Africa

    Luthando Dziba

  7. School of Biological Science, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 3209, South Africa

    Luthando Dziba

  8. Global Hub-Montreal, Future Earth, Montreal, Quebec, H3H 2T4, Canada

    Anne-Helene Prieur Richard

  9. United Nations University, Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability, Tokyo, 150-8925, Japan

    Suneetha M. Subramanian

  10. United Nations University, International Institute of Global Health, Kuala Lumpur, 50490, Malaysia

    Suneetha M. Subramanian

Authors
  1. Patricia Balvanera
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  2. Unai Pascual
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  3. Sandra Diaz
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  4. Luthando Dziba
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  5. Anne-Helene Prieur Richard
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  6. Suneetha M. Subramanian
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Patricia Balvanera.

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Balvanera, P., Pascual, U., Diaz, S. et al. Urgent need to strengthen the international commitment to IPBES. Nat Ecol Evol 1, 0197 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0197

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