The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has launched a call inviting Indigenous and local communities from around the world to support three new biodiversity assessments. Submit your contribution before 31 May 2023.

What is IPBES and why is it important?

Biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people underpin almost every aspect of human development through the provision of food, fuel, clean water, cultural connections and climate and natural hazard regulation. However, many of these critical resources are being rapidly degraded and depleted, undermining our ability to ensure human wellbeing and a good quality of life for current and future generations. 

Science-policy assessments, such as those carried out by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), are supporting the evidence of how nature underpins our survival and the concerning levels of its degradation. IPBES, which is similar to the IPCC, gathers the best expertise from diverse scientific disciplines and knowledge communities, including Indigenous and local knowledge, in order to provide knowledge that is relevant to policy and promotes the use of evidence-based decision-making at all levels in government, business and civil society.

What’s the focus of the call? 

In order to ensure that diverse forms of knowledge and evidence is included in its current assessments, IPBES has released a call for contributions on Indigenous and local knowledge to support three ongoing assessments:

• A thematic assessment of the interlinkages among biodiversity, water, food and health in the context of climate change: Nexus Assessment
• A thematic assessment of the underlying causes of biodiversity loss, determinants of transformative change and options for achieving the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity: Transformative Change Assessment
• A methodological assessment of the impact and dependence of business on biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people: Business and Biodiversity Assessment

Just and resilient development can only occur if community-based knowledge, practices, values, needs and experiences are recognised and valued in decision-making processes. CDKN has a long history of brokering knowledge linked to climate change and its impacts through engaging with the IPCC assessments and reports and in the new phase of CDKN, we are exploring opportunities to also support IPBES given the urgency to address the coupled and interlinked biodiversity and climate crises.

How can you apply? 

The deadline for contributions is 31 May 2023.

More information and details on how to contribute can be found here.

For more information on IPBES visit www.ipbes.net