FAO and UN Partners highlight a decade of collaboration as most authoritative global body on biodiversity science (IPBES12) opens in Manchester
Negotiations to focus on critical role of business in conserving, restoring and sustainably using biodiversity
Manchester, United Kingdom – Hosted by the United Kingdom, the twelfth session of the Intergovernmental Science‑Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES12) opened today in Manchester, bringing together governments, experts, and UN agencies to advance the global biodiversity science‑policy action agenda.
A decade-long UN partnership supporting IPBES
The gathering marks ten years of strong collaboration between IPBES and the four UN partner organizations: FAO, UNEP, UNDP and UNESCO. Addressing delegates during the opening session on behalf of the UN partners, Kaveh Zahedi, FAO Assistant Director-General and Director of the Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment, underscored the importance of science‑policy collaboration in responding to interconnected global crises.
“Healthy ecosystems, species and genetic diversity underpin food security, climate resilience, and human well‑being. Biodiversity is the foundation of sustainable agriculture, a vital ally for building resilience to a changing climate, and the backbone of our economies and societies,” said Kaveh Zahedi. “Since IPBES 2, the four UN partners have worked shoulder to shoulder with IPBES to support the work of the Platform and its secretariat, ensuring not just the generation of cutting-edge science, but also translating that knowledge into action.”
Delegates will review the tenth progress report on the UN collaborative partnership arrangement, detailing concrete achievements, such as strengthened support to countries through initiatives like FAO’s Agri-NBSAPs Support Initiative. Since its establishment, FAO, in close collaboration with the three other UN partners, has worked closely with IPBES to enhance both the quality of the scientific assessments and the uptake of scientific findings in global negotiations, national biodiversity strategies, and monitoring systems. FAO brings decades of experience in supporting countries to manage and sustainably use biodiversity for food security and sustainable agriculture. Its data platforms, global assessments and country-level support, together with IPBES findings, help translate science and evidence into tangible improvements for better production, better nutrition, better environment and better lives.
Examining businesses’ impacts and dependencies on biodiversity
In the week ahead, delegates will review the milestone ‘Business and Biodiversity Assessment’, a methodological evaluation of the impacts and dependencies of business on biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people. The report aims to support financial institutions, governments and the private sector to measure and disclose their impacts and dependencies on biodiversity. Given the agrifood sector’s reliance on biodiversity for food diversity, productivity, resilience and innovation, the forthcoming analysis is anticipated to serve as a valuable tool for informing evidence-based policies and practices.
Other agenda items to be discussed include building capacity, strengthening knowledge foundations and supporting policy, improving the effectiveness of the platform, and requests for additional assessments of the Platform up to 2030.
FAO will support negotiations, technical discussions and outreach activities, ensuring that the best available science continues to inform decisions that safeguard biodiversity, strengthen food security and build resilient and sustainable agrifood systems.
About IPBES
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is an independent intergovernmental body established in 2012. IPBES is often referred to as the IPCC for biodiversity. It provides policymakers with objective scientific assessments about the state of knowledge regarding the planet’s biodiversity, its ecosystems and the benefits they provide to people, as well as the tools and methods to protect and sustainably use these vital natural resources. Its mission is to strengthen knowledge foundations for better policy through science, for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, long-term human well-being and sustainable development.