© IPBES

In Panama City, Panama, in April this year the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) was established, at the second plenary meeting to determine modalities and institutional arrangements for an IPBES.

The plenary meeting requested UNEP, in collaboration with interested governments and UNESCO, FAO, UNDP and the Government of Germany, to continue to provide the interim secretariat of IPBES.

In Panama City, governments also agreed on the focus and schedule of intersessional work to prepare for the first session of the IPBES Plenary, which will be held in early 2013.

As part of the above-mentioned intersessional work, and in order to guide the work of the Platform, the Interim Secretariat was requested as an initial exercise to prepare a draft conceptual framework document for review by governments and other stakeholders through an open and transparent online review process.

On behalf of the Interim Secretariat, UNESCO is organizing the IPBES conceptual framework expert meeting for drafting the initial document for review.

It is expected that the draft conceptual framework document be presented at the 1st IPBES Plenary meeting in early 2013, during which the IPBES Multidisciplinary Expert Panel (MEP) will be constituted.