Highlights and images for 2 May 2019

Summary

Highlights for Thursday, 2 May 2019

IPBES Fellows give presents to the IPBES Secretariat.

On Thursday, delegates continued negotiating the draft summary for policy makers (SPM) of the Global Assessment on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in a working group which met throughout the day and into the night. Another working group met throughout the day and in the evening to finalize the Platform’s second work programme.The working group on the Global Assessment discussed key messages on simultaneously achieving nature conservation and other societal goals, such as food security, climate change mitigation, and sustainable economic development. In the afternoon, delegates completed the key messages section, except for several outstanding issues, and began considering the background section. Highlights of these discussions included:

Extended debate on referencing the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) as a way to enhance nature conservation and restoration, while recognizing that indigenous peoples have different rights than local communities and that such rights are recognized in international law, but must be implemented through national law in most countries;

Deliberations on whether to reference specific activities that can support nature conservation in key messages on food security, fisheries, and climate change mitigation; and

A discussion on sustainable pathways and global financial and economic systems during which delegates debated whether economic systems must “evolve,” “reform,” or “transform” to conserve nature.

The second working group on the work programme up to 2030 resumed discussions on the objectives, making textual changes to the sections on capacity building, strengthening knowledge foundations, policy support, communicating and engaging, and reviewing effectiveness. With many noting that specific deliverables should be tailored to the priority topics and possibly be prepared by the task forces for consideration by IPBES-8, delegates agreed to remove references to “deliverables” and consider the elements in the draft work programme as objectives. Coming back to the issue of which topics to consider and what reports to prepare, they also debated: how to consider the topic of connectivity, which many Multilateral Environmental Agreements raised in the first call for inputs, and the need for follow-ups to the Global and Regional Assessments.For extensive details on the day’s negotiations and to hear what delegates said in the corridors, see our daily Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB).

IISD Reporting Services, through its ENB Meeting Coverage, provided daily web coverage and daily reports from IPBES-7. In addition, IISD Reporting Services, will publish a summary and analysis report of IPBES-7 on Tuesday, 7 May 2019.

Photos by IISD/ENB | Diego Noguera

For photo reprint permissions, please follow instructions at our Attribution Regulations for Meeting Photo Usage Page

Working Group I

Ingrid Visseren-Hamakers and Kai Chan, IPBES Experts

Yasuo Takahashi and Hirohide Matsushima, Japan

Georgina Catacora-Vargas, Bolivia

Daniel Alvarez, Chile

Nicola Toki and Anne-Gaelle Ausseil, New Zealand

Sara Carlson and Christine Dawson, US

A Friends of the Chair group meets over lunch break to finalize amendments to a section of the summary for policy makers of the Global Assessment report.