The global assessment IPBES (The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) is the new assessment provided through the UN (UNEP), and is an organism supported now by 125 governments, considered the rightful successor to the MEA. It was launched in Bonn on January 27, 2013, with a deadline for presenting results, specifically government approvals, in (May) 2019, and will be fundamental for the “Fifth Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-5)” of the Convention on Biological Diversity (https://www.cbd.int), scheduled for publication in 2020. This body is relatively similar in mechanism to the Climate Change Panel, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It has an important component focused on aspects of biodiversity compared to other contemporary global assessments, such as TEEB or MAES.
Intermediate reports have already been published and approved in plenary sessions (for example, the first thematic assessment on pollinators, pollination, and food production). Assessments are either thematic and specific areas, or methodological, both regionally and globally. Additionally, areas of interest include support for relevant policies, capacity building, and knowledge development for member states, experts, member states, and interested parties, as well as maximizing the impact of the provided data.
Two documents of specific interest for the current study theme, from this global panel, are: “Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for Europe and Central Asia” (with chapters and summary for the policy-making factors, approved in the IPBES plenary session in March 2018), and “Assessment Report on Scenarios and Models of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services” (published in 2016).
The entire IPBES undertaking involves updating data on ecosystem services and biodiversity. The assessment for Europe and Central Asia signals that the main negative factors are land-use change, but even more so, increasing climate change; meanwhile, it focuses on predictions for 2020-2050 and proposes scenarios for public policy, management, and governance to reduce biodiversity loss and the benefits from nature.
