The International Biodiversity Project 'Understanding Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services and Poverty in order to support policy makers'

The Biodiversity problem

Biodiversity is worldwide in decline and this is affecting the goods and services that depend on vital ecosystems. Goods and services in turn, influence human well-being and poverty. Policy makers take decisions on these issues every day. However, information on impacts from policy decisions on biodiversity and ecosystem services is hardly available. This hampers balanced decision making and is thus an obstacle to sustainable development.

The Goal: Strong Support for Biodiversity-related Policies

Our vision is that policy makers around the world have reliable information available on biodiversity, ecosystem services and their linkages with poverty, which they can use in their decision making. This will help them to get a better understanding of the possible consequences of their decisions. With this vision in mind, the ultimate goal of the International Biodiversity (IB) project is to build tools and institutional capacity for continuous support of biodiversity-related policies such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Millennium Development Goals, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, Socio-Economic Development Plans and National Biodiversity Action Plans.

Tools for Assessments: Indicators, Monitoring and Models

In achieving our goal, we try to establish globally accepted assessment tools, including indicators, monitoring networks and models. These tools provide information on the historical and possible future status of and trends in biodiversity, ecosystem goods and services, and poverty. Coherence between these tools and their applicability at national, regional and global levels is essential for consistent assessments.

The assessment tools can help to answer four key policy questions:

1. Indicators and monitoring: what is changing?
2. Modelling: why is it changing?
3. Biodiversity-poverty linkages: why is it important?
4. Assessments of policy options: what can we do about it?

Collaboration

The International Biodiversity project collaborates with partners from around the globe to carry out projects to build and implement these tools. This network consists of governmental organisations, NGOs, national and international research institutes and universities, which support policy makers on the national to global scale. These partners in turn often work with other organisations, including those in neighbouring countries, bringing together all the available information and expertise and disseminating the approach and the results obtained.