UNEP-WCMC is currently working on a report on synergies between the global biodiversity-related conventions under contract to the Finnish Ministry of Environment. The report is aimed as a contribution to the international environmental governance discussion, not least in the context of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20).
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Biodiversity and climate change issues are coming together under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), according to a new working paper from the University of Edinburgh. The CBD is engaged in questions relating to climate change, it found. In particular, the CBD has progressively addressed legal and policy implications of the impacts on biodiversity of climate change, as well as mitigation and adaptation measures.
Having successfully advanced discussions toward treaties on the protection of folklore and traditional knowledge, country experts this week are meeting at the World Intellectual Property Organization to discuss the protection of genetic resources. But this time, it might prove trickier.
A new international body aimed at reversing the unprecedented loss of species and ecosystems vital to life on Earth due to human activity has passed its final hurdle with approval by the United Nations General Assembly. In a resolution adopted by consensus, the Assembly yesterday called on the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to take the necessary steps to set up the Intergovernmental Science Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the final approval needed for the body for which the groundwork had been laid at UNEP-sponsored meetings earlier this year. "IPBES represents a major breakthrough in terms of organizing a global response to the loss of living organisms and forests, freshwaters, coral reefs and other ecosystems that underpin all life, including economic life, on Earth," UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said today. 
During a plenary meeting held yesterday in New-York, the United Nations 65th General Assembly (UNGA) approved the creation of an Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). 
A new website have launched in Nagoya today – The A-Z of areas of biodiversity importance – 
During the CBD Conference of the Parties, the Friends of the Conservation Commons are organizing a side event on Removing Barriers and Encouraging Participation in Data Sharing. This will take place on Tuesday 26 October, at 16:30, in Room 236 of Building 2 (on the third floor). 
while a number of United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) publications are available in the Internet Archive site, the World Atlases are now available online, as outstanding copyright issues have been resolved.
During June 2010, at an intergovernmental and multi-stakeholder meeting in Busan in the Republic of Korea, a document was adopted which sets the path for establishing an IPBES. The “
