Dear IPBES members, observers and other interested stakeholders,

I am pleased to announce the start of the external review of the draft scoping report for the IPBES business and biodiversity assessment, which is open from 2 November to 13 December 2021.

The rolling work programme of IPBES up to 2030, adopted by the Plenary in decision IPBES-7/1, includes a methodological assessment of the impact and dependence of business on biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people (“business and biodiversity assessment”). In the same decision, the Plenary approved a scoping process for the assessment, based on the initial scoping report set out in appendix II to document IPBES/7/6, for consideration by the Plenary at IPBES 9 (July 2022).
This external review is addressed to Governments, interested and qualified experts, including scientists, decision makers, practitioners and other knowledge holders.
If you would like to participate as an expert reviewer in this external review, please follow these steps:

Register as a user of the IPBES website (https://ipbes.net/user/register) if you have not already done so;
Register to review the draft assessment at: https://ipbes.net/registration/business_biodiversity_draft_scoping_report
Once registered, you will receive an email providing confidential access to the draft of the scoping report. Comments need to be submitted in English using the template available on the same webpage.

During the review period, the following online dialogue workshops will be organized:

An online dialogue workshop for IPBES national focal points and other Government representatives. To accommodate for different time zones, participants may choose to attend one of the following sessions, tentatively scheduled for:
Tuesday, 16 November 2021: 16:00-18:00 CET (with English – French and Spanish interpretation)
Thursday 18 November 2021: 09:00-11:00 CET (with English – Chinese, Russian and Arabic interpretation)
An online dialogue workshop for stakeholders, open to all interested experts, tentatively scheduled for Thursday, 18 November 2021: 14:00-16:00 CET
An online dialogue workshop on indigenous and local knowledge as part of the implementation of the approach to acknowledging and working with indigenous and local knowledge in IPBES (annex II to decision IPBES-5/1).
The meeting registration link for the stakeholder dialogue workshop and the link where national focal points can register a delegation for the national focal point dialogue workshop will be made available by email after a successful registration as a reviewer (see above).
Please contact the technical support unit on capacity-building for technical questions on the dialogue workshops (tsu.capacitybuilding@ipbes.net).
I thank you for your continued support to IPBES.

Dr Anne Larigauderie | Executive Secretary