IPBES
Methodological assessment on monitoring biodiversity and nature's contributions to people
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is an independent intergovernmental body established to strengthen the science-policy interface for biodiversity and ecosystem services for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, long-term human well-being and sustainable development.
In decision IPBES-10/1, the Plenary approved a methodological assessment on monitoring biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people. Following a call for expressions of interest, McGill University made an offer to host the technical support unit for the assessment, which was accepted by the Bureau on 22 November 2023.
The assessment aims to support national and global efforts to:
(a) monitor biodiversity, nature’s contributions to people and the drives of observed changes; and
(b) monitor progress towards the goals and targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), in support of implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity and its three objectives, while contributing to monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals and other relevant multilateral environmental agreements. The assessment will evaluate existing data and systems, as well as those needed to calculate the indicators of the GBF monitoring framework, prioritizing headline indicators and assessing data availability for others. It will examine existing capacities and resources for data collection and analysis at national and global scales, identifying gaps in data availability and access, including biases in taxonomic, geographic, and temporal coverage across marine, inland water, and terrestrial ecosystems. Challenges and barriers related to data generation, access, sharing, and the application of robust statistical methods for trend detection and attribution will also be assessed.
Finally, the assessment will highlight opportunities to strengthen monitoring capacities particularly in developing countries. It will also assess opportunities to advance community-based, Indigenous, and citizen-science monitoring, and will consider options to enhance cooperation, promote resource-sharing and reporting, and facilitate the integration of data from multiple sources, with the goal of improving understanding of biodiversity change, especially in underrepresented regions.
For more information, contact us
In decision IPBES-10/1, the Plenary approved a methodological assessment on monitoring biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people. Following a call for expressions of interest, McGill University made an offer to host the technical support unit for the assessment, which was accepted by the Bureau on 22 November 2023.
The assessment aims to support national and global efforts to:
(a) monitor biodiversity, nature’s contributions to people and the drives of observed changes; and
(b) monitor progress towards the goals and targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), in support of implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity and its three objectives, while contributing to monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals and other relevant multilateral environmental agreements. The assessment will evaluate existing data and systems, as well as those needed to calculate the indicators of the GBF monitoring framework, prioritizing headline indicators and assessing data availability for others. It will examine existing capacities and resources for data collection and analysis at national and global scales, identifying gaps in data availability and access, including biases in taxonomic, geographic, and temporal coverage across marine, inland water, and terrestrial ecosystems. Challenges and barriers related to data generation, access, sharing, and the application of robust statistical methods for trend detection and attribution will also be assessed.
Finally, the assessment will highlight opportunities to strengthen monitoring capacities particularly in developing countries. It will also assess opportunities to advance community-based, Indigenous, and citizen-science monitoring, and will consider options to enhance cooperation, promote resource-sharing and reporting, and facilitate the integration of data from multiple sources, with the goal of improving understanding of biodiversity change, especially in underrepresented regions.
For more information, contact us
- Cassia Foley (Technical Support Unit) - cassia.foley@mcgill.ca
- Andrew Gonzalez (Co-chair) - andrew.gonzlez@mcgill.ca
- General technical support unit - monitoring-assessment@ipbes-tsu.org
Funding source: IPBES, McGill University (Department of Biology)
Andrew Gonzalez, Fanie Pelletier, Cassia Foley - cassia.foley@mcgill.ca (Technical Support Unit) , Cristina Sciortino, Gabriela Lichtenstein, Patricia Miloslavich, Maurizo Ferrari, Victor Martinez Vicente, Haigen Xu, Rafaella Canessa Mesias, Celeste Mare, Andrea Belgrano, Matthew Betts, Claudia Campos
Added by: Valeria, 2025-08-26
