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Implementing Institutions
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- Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB), Paris, France
- German Network-Forum for Biodiversity Research (NeFo), Leipzig, Germany
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Project Objectives and expected Achievables
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The success of IPBES highly depends on the involvement of developing countries, especially African countries for the rich biodiversity they host and the prospects in terms of development in the next decades that will have huge impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services (ES). However, not enough African countries are members of IPBES and only a few experts are part of the working groups dedicated to fulfill the programme of work 2014-2018.
One of the supposed reasons is the lack of connections between ministries/political bodies, researchers and other stakeholders that could engage with IPBES. Putting in place IPBES national Committees/platforms in these countries could provide such a place to promote a science-policy interface and strengthen the links between all organisations related to biodiversity, in order to improve the participation to the activities of IPBES.
Our project mainly focuses mainly on French-speaking countries, as France has strong links with those countries and shares the same language, but not exclusively; We will draw on links between France, Germany and all the African countries.
Project objectives and achievables:
1) Workshop to co-construct IPBES National Committees and a common regional platform (spring 2016)
The aim is to bring together each component of the science-policy-practice interface identified in the first part. It is foreseen that the workshop will give the experience of France and other European countries in dealing with IPBES national committees: why such a committee, how it works, how to create one, who participates? Etc. It will also initiate a web tool (inspired by the AfriBes website http://afriseb.net/HomePage) to interconnect national organizations from the science/policy/practice interfrace at the regional level.
Where this workshop will be held in Africa is not decided yet, depending on offers from hosting countries/organizations.
2) Update of the AfriBes-Net website to use it as a virtual IPBES regional platform (November 2015 – Mid 2016)
AfriBes is a bilingual website in which more than 250 experts are (geo-) referenced. It is also used to share and spread information and news, and to develop common projects. The update aims at creating areas where national committee members can exchange ideas and data and where national communities can exchange with each other on common projects at the regional level.
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