First Workshop on Scenario development for IPBES

An exciting workshop was recently held at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) in Leipzig where experts and stakeholders from across the globe came together to discuss the development of new and transformative scenarios for the International Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

The aim of the workshop was to: 1) Determine which scenarios are required to inform decision makers on changes of biodiversity and ecosystem services; 2) Identify gaps in currently existing scenarios as compared to desired scenarios for IPBES such as demographic development, land-use changes, technological change, macroeconomic growth and trade patterns; 3) Explore what activities are needed to fill these gaps and to achieve optimal use of these scenarios in decisions making contexts.

The discussions were enriched by multiple perspectives on how the scenarios could be locally relevant but at the same influence decisions at regional and global levels and the end the group came up with both long term and short term activities so watch this space!