The cause and effect of biodiversity change is in much need of an international science panel.
According to an editorial in Nature, 3 June 2010, the establishment of such a panel is needed to make biodiversity change (loss), as a real economically significant phenomena, much harder to ignore. Like what the IPCC did for climate change. A decision whether to establish such a biodiversity panel will be taken next week in Korea, Busan. The proposed Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) could create the gold standard for independent scientific assessment on an international level. Provided that it has formal relations with and will be supported by the Convention on Biological Diversity, United Nations Environment Programme and UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. This kind of backing is necessary to get not only conservationists, but also food producers like farmers and fishermen, to stand behind its conclusions. The IPBES should provide focus on standards and infrasturucture for biodiversity science and should help to improve and harmonise predictive models of global change. But it should be born in mind that biodiversity change is in general a more local affair.
