Item talk:Q149682

Report on the workshop 'Global modelling of biodiversity and ecosystem services'

A three-day workshop on ‘Global Modelling of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services’, was held in the Hague, Netherlands, from 24th to 26th June 2019. The workshop, attended by 35 modelling and scenario-building experts, was organised on behalf of the former IPBES1 expert group on scenarios and models of the first IPBES work programme by its interim technical support unit, and hosted by the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. The workshop drew on the ‘nature futures’ participatory scenario-building exercise initiated by the IPBES expert group on scenarios and models, and other biodiversity modelling initiatives such as the ISIMIP project2 working on adding biodiversity to the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) scenarios framework, the 'bending the curve' initiative3 led by IIASA4 and WWF5, and GEOBON6 working on modelling Essential Biodiversity Variables. The workshop was a step towards coordinating across biodiversity modelling initiatives, to build on each other’s work, and to seek synergies for the production of innovative scenarios on biodiversity and ecosystem services to inform the post-2020 agenda of the Convention on Biological Diversity, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals. The aims of the workshop were to: 1. Compile material as input for a first draft of the fifth Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-5) based on recent scenario work, including the ‘bending the curve’ scenarios and the newly developed PBL scenarios (modified from the Rio+20 scenarios), and existing models (to be completed by August 2019) 2. Develop a protocol for modelling trends and near term projections on indicators relevant to the Nature Futures Framework7 using models that are readily available (to be completed by early 2020) 3. Set the agenda and define the aims for a larger meeting at the end of 2019 to discuss the long term strategy towards the development of appropriate indicators and models to produce Nature Futures scenarios (to continue beyond Jan 2020)