On Monday, 6 March, regional consultations and the stakeholder day will be held. The opening of the fifth session of the IPBES Plenary will take place on Tuesday, 7 March, at 10 am. The session is scheduled to close on Friday, 10 March 2017. This invitation was sent to Ministers for Environment of all States Members of the United Nations or members of specialized agencies or of the International Atomic Energy Agency, as well as Permanent representatives to UN Environment’s permanent missions to the United Nations in New York, Geneva and Vienna. Please find the provisional agenda for the fifth session of the Plenary. As the Plenary, at its fifth session, will not need to review final drafts of assessment reports, the Bureau has recommended to convene a 4-day session. At this session, the Plenary will review progress made in the implementation of the on-going deliverables of the first work programme of IPBES, and consider the revised scoping report for an assessment on the sustainable use of wild species, as well as the undertaking of additional thematic and methodological assessments. It will also consider related budget and institutional arrangements. An information note concerning practical arrangements, along with the other official documents of the meeting, will posted on the IPBES website (www.ipbes.net) once available. For the purpose of making preparatory arrangements for the session, please fill in the online registration form (http://www.ipbes.net/eform/submit/registration-ipbes-5) as soon as possible, and no later than 15 November 2016. In addition, in line with the IPBES Rules of Procedure, and as with previous meetings, each member Government is required to submit official credentials of its representative, together with the names of alternate representatives and advisers, to the secretariat. The credentials must be issued either by the Head of State or Government or by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, consistent with each country’s policy and law. Each Government is encouraged to send a copy of the credentials to the secretariat in advance of the session, preferably by e-mail (secretariat@ipbes.net), and the original should be submitted as soon as possible, but no later than 24 hours after the opening of the session. Only those Governments that have submitted credentials issued by the above authorities may participate fully in the session. For developing countries, the IPBES secretariat will, upon request, be able to provide financial support to cover travel expenses corresponding to the most economical and direct flights to Bonn, Germany, for one representative from each country, including for the regional consultations on 6 March 2017. Representatives requiring financial assistance are requested to notify the secretariat by e-mail (secretariat@ipbes.net) by 15 November 2016 at the latest. If not already submitted, all members are also requested to submit the name and contact details of their National Focal Point (NFP) to the IPBES Secretariat (secretariat@ipbes.net).