IPBES report: "a truly forward-looking tour de force".

[Article] - Published on February 17, 2025 in Major programs, International partnerships

In December 2024, at its ^11th plenary meeting, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) validated an assessment and summary of existing knowledge to help governments and the general public meet today's ecological challenges. The University of Montpellier is home to the technical support unit that helped draft this report. Meet its manager, Laurence Périanin.

What are the missions of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services?

IPBES was created in 2012, with France's active support from the outset, on the basis of what was done for the IPCC; indeed, we often hear IPBES referred to as the "IPCC of biodiversity", but it's much more than that. IPBES has many functions other than assessing existing knowledge. It catalyzes the production of new knowledge, supports policy formulation and implementation, and builds the capacity of the 148 member states. To this end, it includes forms of knowledge other than scientific, such as indigenous and local knowledge, which is very specific to IPBES.

How was the University of Montpellier's contribution to IPBES initiated?

In 2021, the UM has responded to an IPBES call for tenders to host the technical support unit for this assessment of transformative change. Participation in this assessment demonstrates the strong political will of the University of Montpellier to invest and be visible at international level in structuring and meaningful projects. With this technical support unit, the UM is supporting the work of a group of around one hundred international experts in drafting the evaluation.

How was this technical support unit set up?

There are three of us: Camille Guibal, who is in charge of the program and works closely with the experts, Anouk Renaud, who is the assistant in charge of logistics and administration, and myself. I'm in charge of the unit and must supervise and ensure that deadlines are met, in liaison with the structural programs department. Although I started out as a hydrobiologist, I went on to work as a civil servant at the French Ministry of Ecological Transition, where I was interested in the issue of transformative change. It was there that I applied to the University to take charge of the technical support unit.

Can you explain how the report was produced?

This assessment of transformative change raises the question of what needs to be done to achieve the " 2050 vision of living in harmony with nature " framed by the Convention on Biological Diversity. This report is the culmination of three years' work by some one hundred experts. They examined case studies to decipher their potential for transformation and propose the strategies needed to emerge from the crisis. A total of 7,000 articles were reviewed to produce this unprecedented analysis of the forward-looking changes needed to respond to the biodiversity crisis. This work represents a veritable tour de force of foresight.

What is the role of this technical support unit in the work carried out by IPBES?

We have to coordinate and pace the work of the scientists and experts, organize their meetings, answer their questions about the drafting process, and support them in adapting the text following the two public reviews of the manuscript (nearly 9,000 comments received). The work is carried out 100% in English. We don't intervene in the content, as we mustn't "influence the report", but we are guarantors of its quality. Sometimes we have to guide the experts to prevent them from spreading themselves too thin, and we have to be diplomatic to facilitate co-production.

What difficulties did you encounter on this mission?

The UM was very involved in setting up a working framework that enabled us to complete this mission. We had to work flexible hours to communicate with the volunteer experts, who often worked evenings and weekends across a wide range of time zones. We took part in numerous meetings involving international travel, with many responsibilities and long working hours, sometimes over several weeks at a time. Everything possible was done to ensure the success of this project, in particular with the DPS, our host organization, and Agropolis, which housed us on its premises. Thanks to all this, the work is done and well done.

IPBES presented this report at a press conference in Namibia on December 18, 2024. Were you there? What's next for you?

Yes, of course, we were on hand to prepare the experts and help them respond to the media. Our work continues: over the next six months we have to finalize the report, as many changes were made during the plenary session. We will be working on communicating and promoting this work, in particular by drafting thematic fact sheets to provide a quicker overview of some of the topics covered in the report. The UM, in collaboration with the Agriculture-Environment-Biodiversity cluster, will host a launch event in March. The idea is to encourage the various stakeholders to participate in the work of the IPBES. At the end of this work phase, the unit will be disbanded in summer 2025 at the end of its 3-year mission.

Key words : Biodiversity, Climate, Ecology, International, Research