About

About

Established in 2012, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is an international organization committed to strengthening the role of science in public decision-making on biodiversity and ecosystem services.

To achieve this, IPBES will:

  • respond to government requests for information on biodiversity and ecosystem services;
  • identify and prioritize key scientific information needed for policymakers;
  • perform regular and timely, scientifically credible, independent, and peer-reviewed assessments of knowledge on biodiversity and ecosystem services on a comprehensive global, regional, and sub-regional scale;
  • support policy formation and implementation by identifying relevant tools and methodologies;
  • identify and create key capacity-building tools to support the use of science in policy.

IPBES has many international partners committed to making it the leading organization for assessing the state of the planet’s biodiversity and ecosystem services. It is open to all member countries of the United Nations. As of May 2015, it currently has 124 members. Its United Nations partners are the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Multinational nongovernmental organizations such as the International Union for the Conservation of Nature are also actively engaged in IPBES.

The global community is rallying behind IPBES to protect our planet’s biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Projects Status

IPBES projects fall under four main objectives. Please visit the links below to find out more information on how IPBES is fulfilling each objective, and the current status of IPBES deliverables.

  1. Capacity and Knowledge Foundations
  2. Regional and Global Assessments
  3. Thematic and Methodological Issues
  4. Communication and Evaluation

For more information on the status of U.S. engagement with IPBES, please visit our U.S. Engagement page. There you will find a summary of the history of U.S. involvement with IPBES, and a list of currently serving experts nominated by the United States.