International Payments for Ecosystems (IPES) Publication Review Meeting

Geneva, 28-29 January 2008

Following on from the September 2006 IPES (International Payments for Ecosystem Services) workshop held in Geneva, UNEP jointly hosted the forthcoming IPES Publication Review Meeting along with its IUCN and CBD partners, which took place on 28 – 29 January 2008 in the International Environment House, Geneva.

Since October 2006 UNEP and the IUCN, in close collaboration with the CBD Secretariat, have been working on scaling-up payments for ecosystem services (PES) to the international level (IPES). This UNEP-IUCN work programme aims to address the most salient technical and policy challenges facing this emerging mechanism, through co-organized meetings for experts and policymakers, joint publications and capacity-building activities. The goal is to take a first step towards an international payments system, comparable or linked to carbon trading, but with a clear focus on the conservation of terrestrial and marine ecosystems that host significant biodiversity and related services. As such, developing the IPES concept for greater applicability as a policy tool contributes to UNEP-wide efforts to achieve sustainable ecosystem management.

The main objective of the meeting was to discuss and cross-review the first drafts of the IPES publication with the authors, partners and key experts as well as to establish conclusions to the publication. We also incorporated a half day workshop into the two day review meeting with an expert from the European Environment Agency to look in more detail at how ecosystem accounting can contribute towards the development of IPES.

Contact: fulai.sheng@unep.ch