Story | 10 Apr, 2018

IPBES-6 Outcomes Include Approval of Five Landmark Assessment Reports

Announced as a milestone meeting, five Assessment Reports on the state of knowledge about biodiversity, ecosystems, and nature’s contributions to society were approved during the 6th Plenary of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) that took place from 17-24 March 2018 in Medellin (Colombia).

Participants at the IPBES-6 Opening Ceremony

Photo: Photo: IISD/ENB | Diego Noguera

The 6^th IPBES Plenary in Medellin (Colombia) on 17-24 March was attended by over 700 participatns representing member and non-member governments, UN agencies and convention secretariats, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, indigenous peoples and local communities, and stakeholder groups. Highlights of the meeting included:

Adoption of summaries for policy makers of five assessment reports;
Decisions on implementing the first work programme, including two new assessments for 2018 on the sustainable use of wild species, and on tools and methodologies regarding multiple values of biodiversity, and an assessment for 2019 to consider invasive alien species;
A decision on developing an IPBES strategic framework up to 2030.

Prepared by more than 550 leading international experts from over 100 countries, four regional assessment reports individually cover Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, and Europe and Central Asia. A fifth report examines land degradation and restoration at both regional and global levels. The findings reveal that biodiversity continues to decline in every region of the world, and they will now serve as key inputs to the preparation of a new comprehensive IPBES global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services due for release in 2019.

The unedited advance summaries for policymakers of the four approved regional assessments and the thematic assessment on land degradation and restoration are available online at: https://www.ipbes.net/outcomes. Individual documents are also accessible at the following links: