Update: Deadline for submission of nominations extended to 15 April 2013 

On or before the 28 March 2013, nominations are welcome for relevant experts and stakeholders to attend an international workshop organized in the framework of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). The primary objective of this workshop is to identify procedures and approaches for building synergies between indigenous & local knowledge and science. Organized on behalf of the IPBES Multidisciplinary Expert Panel by UNESCO, UNU and the Ministry of Environment of Japan, this workshop will be held from 9 to 11 June 2013 in Tokyo (in English only).

The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has been recently created by governments from around the globe in order to reinforce dialogue between policy-makers and the scientific community. This global mechanism is designed to gather, analyze and synthesize information that will inform decision-making on countering biodiversity loss and the degradation of ecosystem services. The knowledge of indigenous peoples and local communities makes a crucial contribution, alongside science, to understanding the status and trends with respect to biodiversity and ecosystem services. For this reason, the IPBES functions, operating principles and work programme explicitly recognize and respect ‘the contribution of indigenous and local knowledge to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystems’ (UNEP/IPBES.MI/2/9 Appendix 1, para. 2 (d)).

The Plenary of IPBES at its first session decided to ‘invite members, observers and other stakeholders to submit nominations to the secretariat for participation in the multidisciplinary and regionally balanced expert workshop (on indigenous and local knowledge) for consideration by the Multidisciplinary Expert Panel’.

You are hereby requested to submit such nominations on or before 28 March 2013. To download the nomination form and access additional information, please refer to the interactive Table of IPBES intersessional activities that is available here: http://www.ipbes.net/plenary/intersessional.html

For those who may have difficulty accessing the IPBES site, the IPBES nomination form for the Indigenous and Local Knowledge Workshop is also available here (in a Word document or as a PDF). The completed forms, accompanied by the CV of the nominee, are to be submitted before the deadline to ipbes.unep(at)unep.org