Call for (marine experts) nominees for IPBES assessments (to be nominated by
EuroMarine)
Dear Colleagues
As you may know IPBES, the Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem
Services, has opened a call for nominations of experts (deadline March, 31st,
http://www.ipbes.net/). The already existing working groups structuring IPBES are lacking
marine experts. For this reason, EuroMarine, as part of its role as a stakeholder assisting
this important UN scientific panel, would like to identify and nominate marine researchers
that have the relevant expertise and are willing to participate in providing the following
deliverables (see also attached letter by the IPBES Chair and attached document in IPBES for
details):


Deliverable 2(b): Regional and sub-regional assessments of biodiversity and
ecosystem services (in four regions, notably):
o A regional and subregional assessment for Europe and Central Asia – first
authors meeting scheduled 31 August - 4 September 2015 [up to 100 experts
for this assessment]
Deliverable 2(c): Scoping of a global assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem
services – meeting planned for 5 - 7 October 2015; [up to 20 experts for the scoping
exercise].
In order to ensure inclusion of marine biodiversity and ecosystem aspects in these
deliverables, it is critical to incorporate marine experts from related disciplines. In
consequence, EuroMarine invites experts (nominees) to fill out the application form
available at the IPBES website (http://www.ipbes.net/applicationform.html; see details
below) no later than March, 31st 2015. As explained below, EuroMarine will select the
candidates among the received applications. All nominated individuals (nominees) are
requested to ensure that they are available on the above-indicated dates to participate in
the relevant meetings and are able to find financial support (at the level of their country or
organization) for their travel costs.
If you need further information, please contact Isabel Pinto ([email protected]) and the
EuroMarine Secretariat ([email protected]).
Thanking you for your consideration,
Sincerely,
Isabel Sousa Pinto (on behalf of EuroMarine Steering Committee)
DETAILS ON THE NOMINATION PROCESS
The nomination process will follow these steps:
1. Nominees will fill out an application form and attach their curricula vitae through the
dedicated web portal (http://www.ipbes.net/applicationform.html).
2. In this form, please fill:
Details of Organization supporting your nomination
·
Type of nominating body: Organisation (Stakeholder)
·
Name of organization: Euromarine - Consortium of Marine Research Organizations
(http://www.euromarinenetwork.eu)
·
Position of contact person: Coordinator
·
Full Name (nominator): Philippe Cury
·
E-mail (nominator): [email protected]
·
Phone Number (nominator): +33 675 65 46 34
3. The application form will automatically be sent to the (Nominator) indicated by the
Nominee with an email which will provide a link to a nomination form inviting the
Nominators to approve and submit their nominations.
4. The Euromarine Steering Committee will analyze the applications of the candidates
received up to 31st of March and will nominate those that can be endorsed by Euromarine.
5. Nominators and Nominees will receive an acknowledgement message once the
nomination form confirming the nomination is submitted.
ATTACHMENTS


Original letter calling for nominations from IPBES Chair
A document which can provide information on IPBES to those of you who are not yet
familiar with IPBES
5 February 2015
Dear IPBES Member States and Observers,
The objective of this letter is to launch a call for experts, following up on the outcome of the third
session of the Plenary (Decision IPBES/3/1).
Call for nominations
I would like to request nomination of experts for the following deliverables:
1) A set of regional and sub-regional assessments of biodiversity and ecosystem services
(Decision IPBES/3/1 Annex III)1, implementing work programme deliverable 2b, including for:
a. A regional and subregional assessment for the Americas region (Decision IPBES/3/1
Annex V)2, involving up to 100 experts, with a first authors meeting scheduled for 20 -24
July 2015;
b. A regional and subregional assessment for the Africa region (Decision IPBES/3/1 Annex
IV)3, involving up to 100 experts, with a first authors meeting scheduled 3 -7 August
2015;
c. A regional and subregional assessment for the Asia and Pacific region (Decision
IPBES/3/1 Annex VI)4, involving up to 100 experts, with a first authors meeting
scheduled 17 -21 August 2015;
d. A regional and subregional assessment for Europe and Central Asia (Decision IPBES/3/1
Annex VII)5, involving up to 100 experts, with a first authors meeting scheduled 31
August – 4 September 2015.
2) A thematic assessment of land degradation and restoration, implementing work programme
deliverable 3bi (Decision IPBES/3/1 Annex VIII)6, involving up to 80 experts, with a first authors
meeting scheduled 6 -10 July 2015; and
1
http://www.ipbes.net/images/decisions/ipbes3/Decision_IPBES_3_1_Annex_III_Advance.pdf
http://www.ipbes.net/images/decisions/ipbes3/Decision_IPBES_3_1_Annex_V_Advance.pdf
3
http://www.ipbes.net/images/decisions/ipbes3/Decision_IPBES_3_1_Annex_IV_Advance.pdf
4
http://www.ipbes.net/images/decisions/ipbes3/Decision_IPBES_3_1_Annex_VI_Advance.pdf
5
http://www.ipbes.net/images/decisions/ipbes3/Decision_IPBES_3_1_Annex_VII_Advance.pdf
6
http://www.ipbes.net/images/decisions/ipbes3/Decision_IPBES_3_1_Annex_VIII_Advance.pdf
2
________________________________________________________________________________
IPBES – Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, 53113 Bonn, Germany
[email protected] • www.ipbes.net
3) The scoping of a global assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services for consideration by
the Plenary at its 4th session, implementing work programme deliverable 2c, involving up to 20
experts. A scoping meeting is planned for 5 – 7 October 2015.
For an effective implementation of all of these three deliverables, it is critical to include a broad variety
of experts from various natural and social scientific disciplines and from indigenous and local knowledge
systems, as well as policy and technical experts and practitioners. Governments and organisations
nominating experts are therefore encouraged to promote this multidisciplinary approach, which is
fundamental to the success of IPBES.
The Plenary further requested to coordinate regional and subregional assessments with thematic
assessments and with the global assessment process. In order to do so, the MEP, in consultation with
the Bureau, has recommended that:
1) The expert group performing the global assessment scoping exercise include the co-chairs of all
ongoing assessments as well as MEP and Bureau members;
2) About half of the experts selected for the land degradation and restoration assessment perform
their work as part of the regional and sub-regional assessments contributing to both the
regional and sub-regional assessment and the land degradation and restoration assessment;
3) Scoping for the assessments on invasive alien species (Deliverable 3bii) and on sustainable use
of biodiversity (Deliverable 3biii) be performed by experts also involved in the regional and
subregional assessments (Deliverable 2b); and that each one of the two scoping workshops be
preceded by an open access web based consultation to increase input into the scoping
workshop and process. Governments and organisations making nominations for regional and
sub-regional assessments should therefore ensure that these nominations include experts on
invasive alien species, and on sustainable use of biodiversity.
Nomination procedure
In line with the agreed procedures for the preparation of the Platform’s deliverables, governments and
organisations are invited to nominate experts to participate in the above-mentioned expert groups.
The nomination process will follow these steps:
1. Nominees will be invited to fill out an application form and attach their curricula vitae through
the dedicated web portal (http://www.ipbes.net/applicationform.html)
2. The application form will automatically be sent to the Nominating Government or Organisation
(Nominator) indicated by the Nominee with an email which will provide a link to a nomination
form inviting the Nominators to approve and submit their nominations.
3. Nominators and Nominees will receive an acknowledgement message once the nomination
form confirming the nomination is submitted
Interested experts (nominees) are requested to fill out their application form no later than 31 March
2015. Nominators (governments or organisations) should submit approved applications by 5 April 2015
at the latest. Earlier nominations are encouraged. All nominated individuals (nominees) should be
requested to ensure that they are available on the above-indicated dates to participate in the
relevant meetings. Experts interested in being nominated are encouraged to contact their IPBES
National Focal Point or organisation contact point as they may be operating under their own timeline,
within the IPBES process described here.
________________________________________________________________________________
IPBES – Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, 53113 Bonn, Germany
[email protected] • www.ipbes.net
I am pleased to also inform you that there will be soon a call for nominations for fellows to the IPBES
Young Assessment Fellowship Programme, targeting young scholars who wish to gain experience by
following the regional and sub-regional assessments (Africa, Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe and
Central Asia) or the thematic assessment on land degradation and restoration.
Further I am happy to let you know that there are currently 123 Members of the Platform (the full list is
available at www.ipbes.net). I would like to invite those State Members of the United Nations currently
not members of the Platform to become a member of the Platform, by sending an official letter issued
by a competent authority duly authorized to do so. If not already communicated to the secretariat, all
Members are additionally requested to submit the name and contact details of their focal point, to
whom all correspondence from the IPBES secretariat will be sent in relation to nominations and other
milestones in the IPBES work programme.
I look forward to your positive response to this letter, and to your continued support for the
implementation of our ambitious work programme in 2015.
With very best regards,
Professor Zakri Abdul Hamid
Chair, Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
________________________________________________________________________________
IPBES – Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, 53113 Bonn, Germany
[email protected] • www.ipbes.net
6
Questions
for international assessments
on biodiversity and ecosystem services
French proposal
for the IPBES
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem
Services (IPBES) asked the 111 member states and other concerned stakeholders to
identify and propose particularly important or pressing scientific or technical questions
in order to define the priorities for its work programme.
After a consultation process involving scientists and stakeholders, France presented six proposals:
How can different types of farming interact with biodiversity in
order to sustainably guarantee world food security? How can
agriculture and biodiversity be better combined?
How do biodiversity loss and land degradation, in particular
desertification, interact? What are the consequences on the services
provided by ecosystems?
How can the sustainable protection and use of marine ecosystems
be safeguarded?
How can the impacts of all the phases of the lifecycle of a product or
a service on biodiversity and ecosystems be assessed?
How can we quantify the incidence of global changes on biodiversity
and the services it provides?
What are the scenarios for the future of biodiversity?
For more information on
the IPBES, see page 4.
How can different types of farming interact with biodiversity in order to sustainably guarantee world food security?
How can agriculture and biodiversity be better combined?
Food security aims to ensure access to a sufficient quality and quantity of food for an everincreasing human population. In order to do so, the availability and the fertility of agricultural
lands must be preserved. Agricultural practices which involve biodiversity services and use
less chemical products are more conducive to the preservation of soil quality. Other practices
guarantee higher yields but are less favourable to biodiversity. The main concern is thus to
identify and propagate farming practices that achieve a balance between yields and soil quality
preservation in order to guarantee long-term food security.
A review of current knowledge on this subject is required in order to work out how to find this
equilibrium between farming practices and also clarify the available options relating to land
use and the management of protected areas.
An independent IPBES contribution would reinforce the “State of biodiversity for food and agriculture in the world”, which the FAO will produce for 2017.
How do biodiversity loss and land
degradation, in particular desertification, interact? What are the consequences on the services
provided by ecosystems?
Land degradation appears increasingly clearly to be a major environmental problem
affecting all continents. It is characterized by a decrease in biomass, biodiversity and the
capacity to provide other ecosystem services (such as climatic regulation through carbon sequestration, regulation of water flow, regulation of pathogens, detoxification…).
On a global scale, the economic impact of land degradation is estimated at 380 billion
euros per year (source: UNCCD, 2013).
In order to encourage the sustainable management of land and ecosystems, it is necessary to assess available knowledge. This will lead to the clarification of the interactions
between land degradation and biodiversity loss, as well as the consequences of these processes on ecosystem services and the identification of suitable preventive measures. The multiple causes and types of degradation must be taken into consideration, focusing particularly
on dry zones. Indeed, these areas are the most vulnerable: land degradation is characterized
by desertification which has dramatic consequences on living conditions for local populations,
reinforcing the vicious circle degradation/poverty.
How can the sustainable protection and use of
marine ecosystems be safeguarded?
In recent decades, strong anthropic pressures and the increasing complexity of interactions
between different processes (climatic change, overexploitation, species migration, market
globalisation,…) are challenging our capacity to effectively understand, predict and therefore manage marine resources. In order to safeguard the sustainable management of these
resources, it is necessary to implement coordinated strategies which balance exploitation and
species conservation, involving all the stakeholders and multiple disciplines.
The IPBES could make a significant contribution to this challenge, notably by encouraging the
production of scenarios on the evolution of marine resources, taking account of the
combined impact of fishing and other factors such as maritime transport, climatic
change and the management of protected areas.
These works would be defined with the United Nations’ Global
Marine Assessment, which aims to outline an initial inventory of the
environmental, economic and social aspects of seas and oceans.
How can the impacts of all the phases of the lifecycle of a
product or a service on biodiversity and ecosystems
be assessed?
Economic activities are based on products and services that generate considerable
impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems. However, this is rarely taken into account in
the overall product life cycle (conception, distribution, use). Besides a lack of data or
difficult access to data, the economic players do not have solid tools and methods
for evaluating these impacts. Yet the integration of biodiversity into their social and
environmental responsibility strategy is fundamental (in terms of their image and
reputation). End consumers are often under informed and generally unaware of the
consequences of their purchases on biodiversity and ecosystems.
How can the economic players analyse their impacts and degree of dependency
on biodiversity? What actions can private and public stakeholders implement, either
individually or collectively, in order to take biodiversity and ecosystems into account
throughout the life cycle phases of a product or a service? How can existing assessment
methods be improved or new methods be developed (benchmarks, tools, indicators and
databases)? The IPBES should be able to shed light on these fundamental questions.
How can we quantify the incidence of global
changes on biodiversity and the services it provides ?
It is essential to assess the effects of global change on biodiversity and ecosystem services
in order to guide decision-making, particularly by identifying the domains in which action is
most needed. This is a matter of urgency due to: 1) the severe impacts already observed and
predicted, and 2) significant persisting uncertainties. International scientific expertise must be
mobilized to analyse the relative and cumulative impacts of global change linked to human
activities, and must consider the interactive effects as well as the feedback loops, as these can
be more consequential than the simple sum of individual impacts.
Moreover, in order to compare the consequences of stresses on biodiversity, common measurement systems and methodologies are required. An inventory of monitoring methods, the
quantification and evaluation of the incidence of global changes on biodiversity and ecosystem services would be a first step towards enabling researchers, managers and decision-makers to act more clearly and objectively; compare and prioritize (locally or globally); and communicate and convince.
What are the scenarios for the future
of biodiversity?
Scenarios and modelling are scientific approaches designed to predict the
future using past and present data and the increasing knowledge of interactions
between living beings. They shed light on the consequences of development
choices adopted by human societies and decisions taken at different levels
on the future of biodiversity, ecosystems and ecosystem services. These
approaches contribute to pre-empting crisis situations and taking preventive measures. The IPCC has demonstrated the value of proposing such
scenarios. In order to avail of equivalent benchmarks for biodiversity, a real
X9Bg5naI coordination effort, supporting research and a dialogue between
science and policymaking is required as soon as possible. Beforehand, it is
important to draw up an inventory of existing scenarios in order to identify
and bridge gaps as quickly as possible.
The IPBES could be the ideal platform for this substantive work and mid to
long-term results would be likely to significantly influence future decisions.
The Intergovernmental SciencePolicy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem
Services was created in 2012 in order to mobilize knowledge
on biodiversity and ecosystem services and guide political decisions. It has four
main functions:
For further information
ipbes.net
www.fondationbiodiversite.fr/
images/stories/telechargement/
IPBES/Fiche_IPBES_.pdf
1. to conduct assessments of biodiversity, ecosystem services and their interactions on an
international, regional and sub-regional scale as well as thematic questions and topical
scientific subjects;
2. to support the elaboration and the implementation of policies by identifying appropriate tools and methods, facilitating their access and encouraging their development;
3. to identify and support capacity-building needs;
4. to encourage a coordinated approach to the generation of new knowledge.
In response to the invitation of the IPBES calling for the identification of focal areas of work,
the Ministry of Ecology and the FRB co-facilitated a participative approach associating diverse
stakeholders (research, ministries and civil society).
After a widely-disseminated electronic consultation among civil society organizations and
research organizations, a work group emitted ten priority issues. Six of them were retained by
the ministries, then reworked and specified in small groups.
These works mobilized the following experts:
ANEST Hugo (Orée), ARROUAYS Dominique (INRA), BELLINI Béatrice (UVSQ), BIENABE Estelle
(CIRAD), BERNOUX Martial (IRD/CSFD), CHENU Claire (AgroParisTech), CURY Philippe (IRD),
DEGEORGES Patrick (MEDDE), ESCADAFAL Richard (IRD/CSFD), GROSS Hélène (ACTA), HOSY
Christian (FNE), JOUVE Marcel (MAE), LAVOREL Sandra (CNRS), LAVIELLE Cécilia (FFP), PRINCOJAN Annabelle (EpE), SARASA Mathieu (FNC), SILVAIN Jean-François (IRD/CS FRB), SOURD
Christine (WWF), TIXIER-BOICHARD Michèle (INRA).
They were animated by BEAUFARON Guéhanne and FIORINA Christel for the MEDDE; BLANC
Cécile and LIVOREIL Barbara for the FRB.
Complete proposals can be downloaded on http://www.ipbes.net/intersessional-process/
comments-received.html#beforeone
The next steps
Overall, fifty proposals were addressed to the IPBES on behalf of governments,
international conventions, scientific programmes or NGOs. They provided the
basis for the 2014-2018 work programme project, elaborated by the multidisciplinary Group of experts and the IPBES Bureau. This work programme is exposed to
widespread consultation in June-July 2013, before being considered for adoption
by the 2nd plenary session of the IPBES which will take place in Antalya (Turkey) on
December 9-14, 2013.
* The founding members of the FRB
Citation: FRB, 2013. Six questions for international expertise on biodiversity and ecosystem services; French proposal for the IPBES,
July 2013, FRB, Paris
Publication director: B. Herbinet
Written by: C. Blanc, B. Livoreil
© Photo credits: CNRS Photothèque/Air
Papillon, Thomas Vignaud; IRD- Thierry Ruf,
Olivier Dangles, Pierre Genthon; MODIS
NASA; naturexpose.com
Document developed as part of a study
supported by the MEDDE and the MESR
Foundation for
Research on
Biodiversity
[email protected]
www.fondationbiodiversite.fr
The Foundation for Research on Biodiversity is
a focal point for the different scientific players
and stakeholders concerned by biodiversity. It
was created in 2008, after the Grenelle Environment, by eight public research institutions*,
with the support of the Ministries of Research
and Ecology. Encouraging innovation, promoting scientific projects and developing studies,
outlines and expertise, are some of the core
activities of the FRB. At present, the Strategic Orientation Council of the FRB includes a
hundred structures, associations, enterprises,
managers or communities, all united around
a common goal: facing scientific biodiversity
challenges together.