Summary
Plenary convened in the morning and early afternoon to complete several outstanding organizational matters, elect new members to the Bureau and the Multidisciplinary Expert Panel (MEP), approve the remaining summary for policy makers (SPM), and adopt the session’s decisions and the meeting’s report.
Highlights of the closing plenary included the following:
- The election of 15 new members of the MEP, including: nine women and six men, with six social scientists and nine natural scientists among them.
- The approval of the SPM of the assessment on land degradation and restoration and the acceptance of assessment chapters without further amendments.
- The adoption of the decision on the implementation of the IPBES work programme, including decisions on initiation of work on pending assessments and follow up to the internal review.
- The adoption of a revised budget for 2018 and a provisional budget for 2019, enabling the initiation of work on pending assessments and increasing the number of lead authors for each assessment.
- The adoption of a decision on the development of a draft strategic framework up to 2030 and a rolling programme of work.
In their closing statements, regional representatives lauded the success of IPBES-6 having adopted five assessments and underlined their importance for policy making at the global, regional, and subregional level.
Members of the MEP and several assessment Co-Chairs recognized the outstanding contributions by volunteer experts to the development of the assessments. Stakeholder groups stressed the need to recognize the contributions of all stakeholders.
IPBES Executive Secretary Anne Larigauderie urged outgoing members of the MEP to form an alumni organization to continue supporting the Platform and reported on successful media outreach and uptake of the regional assessments.
IPBES Chair Watson said the adoption of seven assessments in five years has brought IPBES’ performance up to par with the 30-year-old IPCC, noting that the next step should be for both platforms to work collaboratively.
He gaveled the meeting to a close at 3:00pm.
ENB SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS: The Earth Negotiations Bulletin summary and analysis of IPBES-6 will be available on Tuesday, 27 March 2018.
IISD Reporting Services, through its Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) Meeting Coverage, provided daily digital coverage and daily reports from IPBES-6. In addition, IISD Reporting Services has produced a summary and analysis report of IPBES-6, which is now available in HTML and PDF.
Photos by IISD/ENB | Natalia Mroz and Diego Noguera
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Plenary Session
L-R: Land Degradation and Restoration Assessment Co-Chairs Luca Montanarella, Italy, and Bob Scholes, South Africa; IPBES Executive Secretary Anne Larigauderie; and IPBES Chair Robert Watson
Delegates from Africa pose for a group photo during the plenary session
Eefje den Belder, IPBES Technical Support Unit (TSU) Scenarios and Modelling, the Netherlands
Ivan Trujillo Acosta, Colombia
José Romero, Switzerland, conferring with delegates during plenary
Delegates at the plenary session
Simone Schiele and Thomas Koetz, IPBES Secretariat
IPBES Chair Robert Watson with Alfred Oteng-Yeboah, Ghana
Experts celebrate the approval of the land degradation and restoration assessment
Delegate from Nigeria
Simone Schiele, IPBES Secretariat
A view of the dais
IPBES Executive Secretary Anne Larigauderie
IPBES Executive Secretary Anne Larigauderie and IPBES Chair Robert Watson celebrate the successful completion of IPBES-6
Around the Venue
The ENB team at IPBES-6. L-R: Beate Antonich, Germany; Diego Noguera, Colombia; Tallash Kantai, Kenya; Stefan Jungcurt, Germany; Dorothy Wanja Nyingi, Kenya; Claudia Friedrich, Germany; Natalia Mroz, Australia; and Asterios Tsioumanis, Greece.