The Australian Chief Environmental Biosecurity Officer, Dr Bertie Hennecke joined representatives from 143 governments in Bonn, Germany for the tenth session of the Plenary of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES 10) held in September 2023.
Often described as the ‘IPCC for Biodiversity’, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, IPBES, is the world’s biodiversity platform for science and policy and is backed by the United Nations.
A highlight of IPBES 10 was the launch of the ‘Invasive Alien Species Report’. The report is the culmination of four years of work by 85 international experts from 49 countries. More than 13,000 references were reviewed and collated into this six-chapter report.
The Chief Environmental Biosecurity Office was responsible for providing the funding that supported CSIRO’s Chief Research Scientist Dr Andy Sheppard’s involvement as coordinating lead author for Chapter 5 of the report. Chapter 5 explored the effectiveness of past and current programmes and tools for the global, national, and local prevention and management of invasive alien species and their impacts.
The Invasive Alien Species Report is a global assessment which provides policy advisors in governments around the world with the best available evidence and analysis to assist in developing strategies to prevent the spread of invasive species beyond their original habitats. Once compiled, the report was extensively reviewed with thousands of external comments received from scientists, government decision-makers, practitioners, and the holders of Indigenous and local knowledge.
You can download a copy of the report and read some key summary statistics here.
