Montpellier, France
November 30, 2007
Source:
CIRAD
When will there be an intergovernmental panel on biodiversity
along the lines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC)? The specialists are hoping such a structure can be set
up by the end of 2008. In November, almost 80 of them met in
Montpellier and agreed on the remit for such a panel: to provide
both independent and credible expertise, build regional and
local scientific capacity, make knowledge more accessible and
improve the interface between science and policy. These
conclusions are the fruit of two and a half years of
international and regional deliberations, organized on all five
continents by the Steering Committee for an IMoSEB
(International Mechanism of Scientific Expertise on
Biodiversity)*. The specialists are planning to organize an
intergovernmental conference in 2008, in conjunction with the
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which should serve
to determine how the structure could be set up.
So that nobody can say in future "we didn't know"
In particular, the conference should take account of the results
and consequences of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA)
conducted between 2001 and 2005 to estimate the impact of human
activity on the environment and, conversely, the way in which
such changes affect future prospects for terms of human health
and wellbeing. The biodiversity experts and those involved in
the MEA have a similar view of the current issues surrounding
biodiversity. It is not enough to draw up a list of threatened
or extinct species. Biodiversity needs to be seen as a whole, in
terms of management but also of environmental services rendered,
for instance from the point of view of adaptation to climate
change. The disappearance of some species can have dramatic
consequences for animal - and subsequently for human - health.
For instance, entire regions, such as certain valleys in Nepal,
no longer have any pollinators. Another example is the
appearance in certain geographical zones of living organisms -
seafood toxins, animal viruses, fruit tree parasites - that
disrupt the ecosystem and can have serious economic and sanitary
consequences.
One idea is to set up a panel of experts drawn from the range of
existing networks. International bodies and NGOs need to be
involved in the process. All the multilateral agreements are
also concerned: the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), the World
Heritage Convention, the Ramsar Convention on wetlands, the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild
Fauna and Flora (CITES), that on Migratory Species (CMS), and
regional agreements, not forgetting the conventions on climate
change and desertification. Everyone needs to realize the merits
of setting up a heavyweight federative structure to ensure that
nobody - politicians, scientists, economic players or public
opinion - can say in future "we didn't know".
The French government is backing the initiative
The ball is now in the politicians' court. The French government
has confirmed its support for the initiative. Nathalie
Kosciusko-Morizet, the Secretary of State for Ecology, who was
at the Montpellier meeting, stressed the importance of the
initiative with regard to the recent "Grenelle de
l’Environnement" talks in France. The Minister for Higher
Education and Research, Valérie Pécresse, who met Didier Babin,
a CIRAD researcher and executive secretary of the process
towards an IMoSEB the day after the event, is now due to submit
the idea to her peers.
* The executive secretariat of IMoSEB has been entrusted to the
Institut français de la biodiversité (IFB), of which CIRAD is a
member.
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