Valuing nature’s contributions to people: the IPBES approach

Abstract

Nature is perceived and valued in starkly different and often conflicting ways. This paper presents the rationale for the inclusive valuation of nature’s contributions to people (NCP) in decision making, as well as broad methodological steps for doing so. While developed within the context of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), this approach is more widely applicable to initiatives at the knowledge–policy interface, which require a pluralistic approach to recognizing the diversity of values. We argue that transformative practices aiming at sustainable futures would benefit from embracing such diversity, which require recognizing and addressing power relationships across stakeholder groups that hold different values on human nature-relations and NCP

Objectives for Stakeholder Engagement in Global Environmental Assessments

“…The UNFCCC has, beginning in 2013, conducted four Structured Expert Dialogue sessions closely linked with IPCC AR5, which successfully brought together scientific experts from multiple disciplinary backgrounds and national government representatives in open discussions away from the pressures of a negotiation to foster learning [1,62]. A third example of success with regards to the indicator of high participants diversity can be found in the case of IPBES, which places more emphasis on indigenous and local knowledge than any other GEA to date, and already includes actors coming from a diversity of cultural backgrounds and with different types of knowledge in meetings such as the pre-plenary Stakeholder Days [10,14,15].…”

Applying Place-Based Social-Ecological Research to Address Water Scarcity: Insights for Future Research

“…We identified the need to include diverse knowledge sources in research design and policy making, including traditional, experiential, local and indigenous scientific knowledge, as postulated by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services [10], to facilitate co-learning among stakeholder groups and scientists, and to enable more sustainable governance solutions that incorporate multiple stakeholder needs, values and interests.…”

“…Therefore, advancing equitable water governance solutions requires place-based approaches, solutions based on the co-production of knowledge [3,4,8], and the existence of institutional diversity and multi-level governance that considers cross-scale and cross-sectoral interdependencies [4]. Such cross-scale approaches that include local to broader scales may have the potential to provide a generalizable framework capable of being translated across different socio-ecological systems [9][10][11].…”

“…Developing equitable and effective governance solutions for water scarcity is a global priority [6][7][8] to achieve global sustainability [9][10][11]. Governance solutions for water scarcity are defined as the social and political processes of fixing goals for the management of water scarce social-ecological systems (SES).…”

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES): getting involved

“…Adoption of this approach means that a wider range of worldviews will be available to help produce deliverables which fully comprehend ''nature's contributions to people''. Much intersessional work on the topic of nature's contributions to people has been, and will continue to be, undertaken (Pascual et al 2017) and will be an important discussion topic at IPBES6.…”