Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Africa Regional Assessment
Project partners:
CST project team
- Prof Reinette (Oonsie) Biggs
- Dr Maike Hamann
- Dr Nadia Sitas
- Dr Laura Pereira
External project partners
Government-nominated experts from across Africa
Project period:
2016 - 2018
Project Description:
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is an independent intergovernmental body established to strengthen the science-policy interface for biodiversity and ecosystem services for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, long-term human well-being and sustainable development. It was established in April 2012 by 94 Governments. A large number of NGOs, organisations, conventions and civil society groupings participate in the formal IPBES process, with several thousand individual stakeholders, ranging from scientific experts to representatives of academic and research institutions, local communities and the private sector, contributing to and benefiting from the work of IPBES.
The Africa Regional Assessment focused on various thematic priorities, including the food-energy-water-livelihood nexus; land degradation, including climate-related risks such as desertification and silting; catchment to coast; biodiversity conservation and sustainable use; and invasive alien species. The assessment also addressed a number of cross-cutting themes.
Prof Reinette (Oonsie) Biggs (coordinating lead author), Dr Nadia Sitas (fellow), Dr Maike Hamann (lead author) and Dr Laura Pereira (contributing author) contributed to “Chapter 5: Current and future interactions between nature and society”. Dr Laura Pereira also served as a lead author for “Chapter 6: Options for governance, institutional arrangements and private and public decision making across scales and sectors”, to which Dr Nadia Sitas also contributed.
Project outputs:
Website: https://www.ipbes.net/regional-assessments
The IPBES regional assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services for Africa: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3236177.
Summary for policymakers of the regional assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services for Africa of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. E Archer, LE Dziba, KJ Mulongoy, MA Maoela, M Walters, R Biggs, M-C Cormier-Salem, F DeClerck, MC Diaw, AE Dunham, P Failler, C Gordon, KA Harhash, R Kasisi, F Kizito, WD Nyingi, N Oguge, B Osman-Elasha, LC Stringer, L Tito de Morais, A Assogbadjo, BN Egoh, MW Halmy, K Heubach, A Mensah, L Pereira, N Sitas (eds). IPBES secretariat, Bonn, Germany. 49 pages.
Biodiversity and ecosystem services on the African continent – What is changing, and what are our options? Environmental Development: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2020.100558.
