From 21 to 26 January 2013, government representatives and leading experts on biodiversity are coming together for the first official plenary meeting of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services, which was founded in Panama City in April 2012. UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner, Federal Environment Minister Peter Altmaier and the Mayor of Bonn Jürgen Nimptsch jointly opened the international conference in the Plenary Chamber of the World Conference Center Bonn (WCCB).
IPBES was founded because the international community recognised that biodiversity and ecosystem services are directly linked to human wellbeing. The current continuous loss of biodiversity has a very negative impact on the quality of life and chances for survival of human beings. Political decisions may also adversely affect biodiversity. The task of IPBES therefore is to make scientific findings available to governments in such a way as to facilitate political decisions.
IPBES is the intergovernmental science-policy platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services.