Preparatory workshop on IPBES Assessment review
24 May 2017, Brussels
On 24th May 2017, the IPBES Belgian Focal Point will organise a preparatory workshop on IPBES Assessment external review at the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO) in Brussels. The main goal is to collect proper feedback from selected experts on the technical reports/individual chapters (morning session), and from policymakers on the Summary for Policymakers (afternoon session).
If you are interested to participate in this participatory workshop, please register online with possibility to register for the morning/afternoon/both sessions.
Background information:
IPBES aims to finalise five assessments at the sixth session of the IPBES Plenary, in March 2018:
- Four regional assessments of biodiversity and ecosystem services (for Africa, the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe and Central Asia) and
- The thematic assessment on land degradation and restoration.
One of the most important phases in drafting assessments is the period in which they are opened for external review by any interested experts, ranging from scientists and decision-makers, to practitioners and the holders of indigenous and local knowledge. Participation and engagement of governments in the external review period is especially vital to strengthen the credibility, legitimacy and policy relevance of the assessments, as well as to deepen their ownership of the assessments.
The review period for the afore-mentioned assessments will run from 1 May until 26 June 2017.
In case you are not able to attend the workshop, but would still be interested to act as review expert, please register as user of the IPBES website (http://www.ipbes.net/user/register?destination=sod-review) if you have not already done so. You can then apply to become an IPBES external reviewer for individual chapters per assessment at www.ipbes.net/sod-review (this will only work when logged in first as IPBES website user). You will receive confidential access to the draft chapters and summaries for policymakers and will be requested to submit you comments in English using a template that will also be supplied. All relevant comments will then be addressed by the assessment authors in the next round of revisions.
More details on the agenda for the preparatory workshop of the 24th May 2017 will be circulated shortly.
The deadline for registration is 19th May 2017.