Sub-Global Assessment Network

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is a new development that will act as an interface between the scientific community and policy makers. It is the result of three recent intergovernmental, multi-stakeholder meetings (Malaysia 2008, Kenya 2009, Republic of Korea 2010), addressing gaps in the science-policy interface and aims to act as a global mechanism for bridging these gaps. Established in April 2012, IPBES will collect, synthesize and analyse information, building capacity for and promoting the use of science in decision making.

The Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) was initiated in 2001, under the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, to assess the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being and the scientific basis for action needed to enhance the conservation and sustainable use of those systems and their contribution to human well-being. It has involved the work of over 1,360 experts worldwide and its findings provide a state-of-the-art scientific appraisal of the condition and trends in the world’s ecosystems and the services they provide (such as clean water, food, forest products, flood control, and natural resources), along with options to restore, conserve or enhance the sustainable use of ecosystems.

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) study is a major international initiative to draw attention to the global economic benefits of biodiversity, to highlight the growing costs of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, and to draw together expertise from the fields of science, economics and policy to enable practical actions moving forward.

The Marine Ecosystem Services Partnership (MESP) is a virtual center for information and communication on the human uses of marine ecosystem services around the world. It was proposed in early 2010 to provide up-to-date and easily accessible data for the use of policy makers, environmental managers, researchers, and marine ecosystem stakeholders. It strives to act as a community of practice, through which data users and managers can work collectively to better integrate ecosystem services data with marine policy needs, with the overall mission of helping society to identify and sustainably manage the globe’s ocean and coastal ecosystems, for the benefit of people and society, by understanding the value of these ecosystems and the services they produce.

The Group on Earth Observations – Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) is the biodiversity arm of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), a sophisticated system of interlinked global monitoring tools, consisting of satellite, air, land and ocean-based instruments. Over 100 organizations, governmental and non-governmental, collaborate through GEO BON. It acts as both a Community of Practice and a task, to make biodiversity data, information and forecasts more readily accessible to policymakers, managers, experts and other users. Launched in 2008, it is steadily progressing towards a more complete understanding of the status and trends in the world’s living resources, through various facilitative processes. These include ascertaining data requirements of user groups, reviewing and prioritize research, facilitating interoperability among observation systems and databases, generating regularly updated assessments of global biodiversity trends, designing decision-support systems that integrate monitoring with ecological modeling and forecasting, and making data and reports available to users via GEOSS.

The Poverty-Environment Initiative (PEI) was launched collaboratively in 2005, by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). It is a global UN-led programme that supports country-led efforts across Africa, Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe and Central Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, to mainstream poverty-environment linkages into national and sub-national development planning. The PEI provides financial and technical assistance to government decision-makers and a wide range of other stakeholders to manage the environment in a way that improves livelihoods and leads to sustainable growth. PEI works with key government partners to raise awareness, influence policy making and strengthen the mainstreaming of poverty-environment into budget processes, sector programmes and sub-national planning. The overall aim is to bring about lasting institutional change and to catalyse key actors to increase investment in pro-poor environmental and natural resource management.

The Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) began in 2009, jointly sponsored by ICSU and UNESCO. It is an interdisciplinary research endeavor that integrates social and natural science, aiming to provide the understanding needed for wise stewardship of landscapes and seascapes. PECS aims to address the key question; 'how do policies and practices affect resilience of the portfolio of ecosystem services that support human well-being and allow for adaptation to a changing environment?' through innovative, collaborative research projects using the MA framework.