Today Bonn was honoured once more to be chosen as the headquarters for another international secretariat: The World Biodiversity Council IPBES officially opened its Secretariat in the Federal City of Bonn on the Rhine river. The Federal Government has provided office space in the UN Tower (Langer Eugen). On behalf of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety Parliamentary State Secretary Florian Pronold attended the opening ceremony.
"I am certain that the IPBES will play a key role in global biodiversity conservation. We as policy makers require independent, scientifically founded and thus reliable information on the status, development and threat being posed to biodiversity to help us make decisions on the conservation of global biodiversity", Pronold outlined.
Like its role model IPCC IPBES provides scientific policy advice. IPBES stands for Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. The Secretariat consists of nine staff and is headed by Executive Secretary Anne Larigauderie.
IPBES it to provide independent and reliable information on the status and the development of biological diversity. IPBES will also outline scientifically founded options for policy action geared towards conserving and sustainably using biodiversity and ecosystem services.
IPBES was founded in Panama in April 2012 during a UN conference. With 118 members already, IPBES is administrated by the United Nations Environment Programme. In Panama the community of states also chose Bonn as the location for the IPBES Secretariat.
With 18 UN organisations now based in Bonn, including the IPBES Secretariat, the UN city has been further strengthened. For the future work of IPBES the Secretariat of the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Secretariat of the Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the Secretariat of the Bonn Convention on Migratory Species (UNEP/CMS) are of particular importance.
Germany supports the Secretariat not only with office space and equipment at the UN Tower, it also contributes financially to the IPBES budget. Moreover, together with the Federal Ministry of Education and Research the Federal Environment Ministry has set up a national IPBES coordination office to support the Secretariat. The next IPBES plenary meeting will take place at the Secretariat’s headquarters in Bonn in Januray 2015.