World biodiversity experts converge at WII

DEHRADUN: The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service (IPBES), a global NGO effort, is meeting at the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun this week. Zakri Abdul Hamid, founding chair of IPBES, headquartered in Bonn, said, “Flora and fauna are getting swiftly endangered or on the verge of extinction.” He said that regional meetings on biodiversity are being held in the Asia Pacific, Europe, America, Asia and Africa, and by February, an assessment on the effect of pollination, directly linked to food security, will be completed.”
About 75 participants from 50 countries are participating in the Dehradun meeting.
Although the human population is dependent on biological resources like plants, animals, rivers and mountains for survival, this one species, humans, are also responsible for degrading more than 60% of the world’s biological resources across, according to an assessment carried out in 2005.
Ivar Baste, IPBES bureau-member and co-chair, said 70% of biodiversity exists in developing countries, which often lack the expertise required to properly husband such resources. So in order to build capacity in the developing countries so that they too can participate in the assessment and then share the commonality of outcomes among scientists with regard to data and information, this exercise is being undertaken, he said.
WII director Vinod Mathur said, “IPBES is the world’s leading intergovernmental body for assessing the state of the planet’s bio-diversity, its ecosystems and the essential services they provide to society. It was established by more than 90 countries in Panana City on April 21, three years ago. At present it has 124 member states. The main objectives of IPBES are to strengthen the science and policy interface so as to better understand and manage the interactions between nature and society.”