Beginning with an official opening ceremony to be addressed by the President of Colombia on Saturday, leading experts from around the world will convene here for eight days with policymakers from more than 115 countries to finalize landmark reports from five major expert assessments, focused on biodiversity, nature's contributions to people and issues of land degradation and restoration.
An estimated 750 delegates will participate in the sixth session of the Plenary of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (#IPBES6), chaired by Sir Robert Watson, at the Intercontinental Hotel, Medellín, from 17-26 March.
"Taken together, these five peer-reviewed assessment reports represent the single most important expert contribution to our global understanding of biodiversity and ecosystem services of the past decade," said Watson. The assessments will provide unprecedented insights into the status of global biodiversity and land quality, both of which are essential to quality of life and healthy, productive ecosystems.
Often called 'the IPCC for biodiversity,' IPBES is the global science-policy platform tasked with providing the best-available evidence to inform better decisions about nature.
The reports being launched at #IPBES6 were completed over three years by 550 scientists and experts from more than 100 countries.
Four of the studies present the state of biodiversity and nature's contributions to people in the Americas; Asia and the Pacific; Africa; Europe and Central Asia.
The five reports will be key inputs to a comprehensive IPBES global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services, due for release in 2019, the first such global evaluation since the authoritative 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.
In addition to helping decision makers evaluate lessons learned and progress on major global development commitments - such as the Sustainable Development Goals, the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the Paris Agreement on climate change - the reports will also provide vital information for setting biodiversity targets for the period after 2020.
"Biodiversity and nature's contributions are essential to sustain the economic well-being, food security and quality of life of all people," said Watson. "As one of the most biodiverse countries on Earth, Colombia provides the ideal setting for #IPBES6, and we thank the Government and people of Colombia for extending their warm and generous hospitality for these vital global discussions."
You can find the primers here:
https://www.ipbes.net/ipbes-6-primers Source:
www.ipbes.net