Annual Report 2010-11 - Global Invasive Species Programme - GISP

FOREWORDFrom the Chair and the ExecutiveDirector2010 was yet another year of majorevents, and remarkable advances,relating to biodiversity scienceand biological conservation. TheDIVERSITAS community was deeplyinvolved in these events as notedbelow.International Platform forBiodiversity and EcosystemServices, IPBESThere has been crucial follow upactivities related to the agreement by aconsensus of 85 nations to establish anInternational Platform for Biodiversityand Ecosystem Services (IPBES) inBusan, Republic of Korea in June, 2010.The establishment of IPBES had beena key goal of DIVERSITAS that formallybegan with an international conferenceon biological diversity hosted by theFrench Government at UNESCO in Parisin 2005. The June event in Busan wasjust the beginning of the process ofestablishing an operational mode forIPBES that is still unfolding. SinceJune, 2010, the IPBES concept wasformally welcomedby the Convention onBiological Diversity(CBD) at their 10 thConference of theParties in Nagoya,Japan in October,2010. It also passeda major hurdle withthe United NationsGeneral Assemblyagreeing to its establishment inDecember, 2010. The United NationsEnvironmental Programme has beencharged with creating an operationalIPBES along with relevant partnerUN agencies, including UNESCO, ourinstitutional sponsor. There have beenpreparatory meetings toward this endin which DIVERSITAS members havebeen involved. Finally, one year pastthe Nagoya meeting, the first meetingwill be held in Nairobi in October,2011, to begin the process of makingIPBES operational. There are manyimportant details to be decided inNairobi and DIVERSITAS members willcontinue to be actively involved, inclose cooperation with our partnerprogramme IHDP and on behalf ofICSU, in a process that will make a verylarge difference in the assessment ofthe knowledge we have on the statusof biological diversity and ecosystemservices, but also on knowledgegeneration and capacity building. Themain point to be made is that thesecrucial processes seemingly take foreverto navigate. But that they happen at allis somewhat miraculous considering allof the nations involved and the diverseinterests of the numerous stakeholders.But above this is the fact that ourcommunity will now, at long last, havean orderly process for assessing andresponding to adverse consequencesof the losses in the biological diversitythat sustains us all.DIVERSITAS I ANNUAL REPORT 2010 3