Prsentation PowerPoint

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Towards an International Mechanism of Scientific
Expertise on Biodiversity
Michel Loreau Department of Biology, McGill
University, Montréal, Canada E-mail
michel.loreau_at_mcgill.ca
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Biodiversity where do we stand?

• Biodiversity continues to be lost globally
  without any sign of improvement

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Biodiversity where do we stand?

• In the long run, the loss of biodiversity and of
  associated ecosystem services may be a serious
  threat to human well-being
• Yet biodiversity is still perceived as a
  second-rate issue (compared e.g. with climate
  change), and current efforts have not been able
  to reverse the trend towards biodiversity loss
• The biodiversity scientific community itself is
  still fragmented and poorly involved in the
  political process

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Biodiversity where do we stand?

• A mechanism for synthesising scientific knowledge
  and providing independent scientific assessment
  to support policy decisions (such as IPCC for
  climate change) is currently lacking
• The Millenium Ecosystem Assessment was a first
  attempt at filling the gap between science and
  policy, but it was a one-off effort and it did
  not involve governments

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Towards an International Mechanism of Scientific
Expertise on Biodiversity (IMoSEB)

• The establishment of an IMoSEB was supported by
  Jacques Chirac and the gt 2,000 participants in
  the International Conference Biodiversity Science
  and Governance
• Steps have been taken by the French government to
  launch an international consultative process to
  assess the need, scope and possible forms of an
  IMoSEB

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Assessing the need and scope of an IMoSEB

• The goal of the current consultative process is
  to assess the need, scope, and possible forms of
  an IMoSEB completely open process!
• An IMoSEB requires the following elements
• intergovernmental component
• independence
• competence
• representativeness (opinions, disciplines,
  regions)
• peer review
• transparency
• policy relevance

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Assessing the need and scope of an IMoSEB

• Key issues to be addressed during the
  consultative process
• Is there a need for such a mechanism?
• What would its added value be compared with
  existing mechanisms?
• Who would its audience and stakeholders be?
• What information do national governments and
  international bodies need on biodiversity?
• What would its mandate and governance structure
  be?
• What would its relationships with international
  conventions be?
• How would it be funded?

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Organisation of the consultative process

• Currently led by an interim International
  Steering Committee involving scientists and
  policy makers (two meetings Paris, June 2005,
  and Oaxaca, November 2005)
• International Steering Committee to be appointed
  in Paris, February 2006
• Executive secretariat is being set up in France
• Progress report at the 8th CoP of the CBD in
  Curitiba, March 2006

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Whatever its outcome, the consultative process
towards an IMoSEB is a unique opportunity

• to make biodiversity science and governance move
  forward
• to fill the gap between biodiversity science and
  policy
• to find new ways of facing the current
  biodiversity crisis