ILK dialogue workshop for the first order draft of the assessment of invasive alien species

An online ILK dialogue will take place from 29 September to 1 October, during the review period for the first order draft of the IPBES assessment of invasive alien species.

The dialogue will take place online due to the continuing problems caused by COVID-19.

Aims of the workshop

Participation of IPLC is crucial to the invasive alien species assessment, as many IPLC have first-hand knowledge of the impacts of invasive alien species on ecosystems and people. Some IPLC groups have also been employing their knowledge of the environment to develop responses or management strategies for invasive alien species.

The aim of the dialogue workshop is to provide comments and feedback on the first order drafts of the assessment, in order to provide guidance to authors on how to further develop the assessment in relation to Indigenous and local knowledge. Other goals include:

• Exploring how Indigenous peoples and local communities experience and understand invasive alien species;
• Exploring how Indigenous peoples and local communities respond to, adapt to and manage invasive alien species;
• Discussing how the invasive alien species assessment could be useful to Indigenous peoples and local communities; and
• Identifying resources and sources of information that could be included in the assessment.

The dialogue workshop will build in part on the first Indigenous and local knowledge dialogue workshop for the assessment, which took place in November 2019. It discussed the early stages of the development of the assessment.

The dialogue workshops are part of a series of approaches to working with Indigenous peoples and local communities and Indigenous and local knowledge throughout the assessment process, in the context of the implementation of the IPBES approach to recognizing and working with Indigenous and local knowledge adopted by the IPBES Plenary in decision IPBES-5/1.

Participants

• ILK holders or ILK experts from Indigenous and local communities;
• Selected authors from the ILK liaison group for the invasive alien species assessment, representing each of the assessment’s chapters.

Agenda

The dialogue will run from 29 September to 1 October, with an initial plenary session for all participants on day 1, and two subsequent sessions in different time zones to facilitate participation by different regions on days 2 and 3. Participants will take part in day 1, and either day 2 or day 3.

The proposed schedule for the dialogue workshop is as follows:

• Day 1, Tuesday, 29 September 2020, 2.00 pm to 5.00 pm CEST: Plenary session
• Day 2, Wednesday, 30 September 2020, 8.00 am to 11.00 am CEST: Smaller group session
• Day 3, Thursday, 1 October 2020, 4.00 pm to 7.00 pm CEST: Smaller group session

Time will be set aside at the beginning of the agenda to allow participants to discuss the issues they wish to address at the meeting, and how they should be approached. 

Languages

The meeting will be held in English.

Free, prior and informed consent

The dialogue will follow principles of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC). The aims of the dialogue and the potential uses for the information gathered will be clearly explained at the outset. As noted above, time will be set aside for participants to collaboratively develop the agenda and protocols for use of information generated during the dialogue. Participants will be free to decline to answer any questions or participate in any activities. Any reports or products from the meeting will be sent to participants for review and approval.