Biodiversity panel est'd, modeled after IPCC

[James Fahn]

The biodiversity crowd continues to follow from the climate change blueprint, but couldn't they come up with a better name for the panel? :)


From the e360 website: http://www.e360.yale.edu/content/digest.msp?id=2457


International delegates have endorsed the creation of a science policy panel on biodiversity and ecosystem preservation, which proponents hope will serve as a bridge
between scientists and governments in reversing biodiversity loss. The
Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem
Services (IPBES), which was approved at a UN meeting in South Korea,
will oversee peer reviews of the latest science on the decline of the
natural world and assess appropriate government responses. The group
will be modeled on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which
plays a leading role in forging global climate policy based on the
latest science research. “IPBES represents a major breakthrough in terms
of organizing a global response to the loss of living organisms and
forests, freshwaters, coral reefs and other ecosystems that generate
multi-trillion dollar services that underpin all life — including
economic life — on Earth,” said Achim Steiner, executive director of the
UN Environment Programme. The idea for the panel emerged after the
2005 publication of the UN’s Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, which
concluded that the degradation of the planet’s natural resources and
ecosystems threatens humanity’s ability to sustain future generations.