Bio bias

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the scientific body created by the United Nations to evaluate the risk of climate change, has shown how strong an influence scientists all over the world can have on politicians and public opinion when they speak with one voice. This was proven once again in 2007 when the IPCC shared the Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. vice-president Al Gore, nearly 20 years after its birth.

But what about biodiversity? The lack of recognized scientific expertise in a field just as vital as climate was underlined in January 2005 at an international meeting in Paris by the then-French president Jacques Chirac. Over the past four years, the idea has progressed, and the creation of what will be called the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is now only a question of time.

“The IPBES should work more or less like the IPCC,” says Didier Babin, the researcher who led negotiations until the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) officially took over the project in February.

Just as the IPCC (which is composed of more than 2,000 scientists worldwide), the IPBES will not carry out research, but will be tasked to publish special reports that gather state-of-the-art studies conducted by recognized scientists around the world. Its main objective is to bring about common indicators that will have an international scope and work as a bridge between the distant worlds of science and politics to make action … and fast.

“IPCC and IPBES will probably also work together,” says Babin, as there are structural links between biodiversity and climate change.

“Think about the rain forests that are immense carbon reservoirs and at the same time among the globe’s major biodiversity hot spots.”

IPBES will certainly have a lot to do in the next few years. A lot of hope is laid in this new panel that should be officially opened in 2010, during what the UN has already labelled the “year of biodiversity.”