A rapid worldwide spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19) has been restricting the physical movement of people, which unavoidably impacted the BES-Net initiative. Several key events scheduled for early this year have, unfortunately, been postponed, such as the National Ecosystem Assessment Global Workshop and the 5th Regional Trialogue targeting Francophone Africa, among others.However, despite the unprecedented challenge the pandemic has presented, the BES-Net team is fully committed to continue the initiative particularly online works on the web portal and social media, as well as some country-level activities, wherever possible.  

For example, the key representatives from policy, science and practice communities in Nigeria came together to review the pollinator-friendly  land degradation neutrality work plan, which was agreed at the Anglophone Africa Regional Trialogue in May 2019. They strategized the priority actions to be pursued in the next two years in support of the uptake of the IPBES thematic assessments on pollinators, pollination and food production and land degradation and restoration.      

The BES-Net team also hopes to stay in communication with the partners to keep closely update each other on the news update and innovative ways to collaborative together virtually.
Please see “Highlights from BES-Net Partners” section below for more information.  

The Belgian Biodiversity Platform is a Belgian federal Science Policy Office (BelSPO-funded) initiative. They provide services to the Belgian scientific community engaged in biodiversity research and to policy-makers as well as to practitioners. As a science-policy interface on biodiversity, their work is based around 3 main areas:

1. Knowledge Brokerage: They make biodiversity research understandable, accessible and usable by policy-makers, practitioners and society. They thereby ensure that research is relevant for society.

2.  Topical Knowledge Incubation: They offer scientists, policy-makers, practitioners and other stakeholders, the opportunity to incubate their knowledge with other experts on topical issues (e.g. invasive species, ecosystems and society, biodiversity and health, nature-based solutions, etc).

3.    Open access to data: They provide services related to the mobilisation, publication, access and use of biodiversity data in an open and free manner. 

BiodivERsA is a network of 39 agencies and ministries from 25 European countries and associated countries, programming and funding research on biodiversity, ecosystem services and Nature-based Solutions. Based on a shared Strategic Research Agenda, BiodivERsA partners develop and support major research programs and capacity building at the crossroads of science, policy and practice (More information here).

This collaboration is based on a mutually beneficial approach, across the four IPBES functions: (i) assessing knowledge; (ii) supporting policy; (iii) strengthening the knowledge foundations; and (iv) building capacity. (More information here).

In 2019, BiodivERsA was selected to co-host the IPBES technical support unit (TSU) on Knowledge and Data, focussing on the Knowledge part of the TSU. 

The sub-unit hosted by BiodivERsA supports the IPBES Task Force on Knowledge and Data in its objective to catalyse the generation of new knowledge based on gaps identified in IPBES assessments. The associated process, currently being developed, is articulated around three objectives: 

1.  Supporting the process of knowledge gaps identification, by proposing guidance materials to assessments’ experts; 

2.  Promoting the uptake of identified gaps by engaging relevant external organisations and institutions. To this end, dialogue events between IPBES experts and relevant programmers and funders of research could be organized; 

3.   Monitoring and follow up on how new knowledge generation effectively filled identified gaps. 

The theme for Earth Day 2020 is climate action. The enormous challenge — but also the vast opportunities of action on climate change have distinguished the issue as the most pressing topic for the 50th anniversary. Climate change represents the biggest challenge to the future of humanity and the life-support systems that make our world habitable.

More information on Earth day here.  Earth day pollinators toolkit here.
Photo Source: Action Hub

The purpose of the world bee day website is to present the initiative and its implementation, raise awareness of the importance of bees and beekeeping, inform the public of major beekeeping events around the world and celebrate World Bee Day.

More information here. 
Photo Source: ENAJ

The Convention on Biological Diversity is the international legal instrument for “the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources” that has been ratified by 196 nations. Given the importance of public education and awareness for the implementation of the Convention, the General Assembly proclaimed 22 May, the date of the adoption of its text, as the International Day for Biological Diversity by its resolution 55/201 of 20 December 2000.

This year the International Day for Biological Diversity is targeted towards raising awareness and building momentum on the importance of biodiversity as well as global issues on biodiversity loss, in the lead up to the United Nations Biodiversity Conference.

For more information, visithttps://www.cbd.int/idb/

Photo Source: CBD