99th ESA Annual Meeting (August 10 -- 15, 2014)

WK 30

Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Thematic Assessment of Pollination and Food Production

The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) was established in April 2012 as an independent intergovernmental body dedicated to assessing the state of the planet's biodiversity, its ecosystems and the essential services they provide to society. As one of its first, high- priority work products, the Draft IPBES Work Program for 2014-2018 proposes a thematic assessment of the status of pollinators and the impacts of changes in pollination systems on food production and human well-being. According to the draft scoping document, “the assessment will address the status of and trends in pollinators and pollination dynamics, drivers of change, impacts on human well-being of pollination declines and deficits and the effectiveness of responses to pollination declines and deficits.” This workshop will provide participants with a summary of major findings of the assessment, which is expected to be available in draft form by August 2014, an opportunity to comment on it, and information about how to become involved in future IPBES activities. This IPBES project is likely to gain significant attention, and we expect many ESA members who work with pollinators will want to learn about it and about how to get involved with IPBES, which will share many characteristics with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, but with a more ecological focus.