Are Soils Taken into Consideration by the IPBES Assessment on Land Degradation and Restoration?
The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is expected to publish an assessment on Land Degradation and Restoration in 2018. Human sciences are represented in this pioneer process, including the law. As soil is a fundame
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1 Introduction The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) was established in 2012. It is an international science policy platform the goal of which is to bring independent scientific assessments of biodiversity and ecosystem services into the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) process.1 The interesting short history of the IPBES consultation process reveals that the idea of IPBES has been brewing at least since early 1990s in United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), but that its establishment repeatedly failed.2 This failing has been attributed to fear of loss of national sovereignty in controlling how biological diversity should be conserved.3 Today, however, the first assessments are in progress, and the very first one on pollinators, pollination and food production is ready and was approved by the IPBES plenary i.e. governments in February 2016.4
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Larigauderie and Mooney (2010). Ibid. 3 Mooney (2009) and Larigauderie and Mooney (2010). 4 Press Release: Pollinators Vital to Our Food Supply Under Threat, IPBES, February 26th of 2016. 2
M. Desrousseaux (*) Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France e-mail: [email protected] J.S. Kotiaho University of Jyva¨skyla¨n, Jyva¨skyla¨, Finland e-mail: [email protected] F. Kohler University of Tours, Tours, France e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing AG 2017 H. Ginzky et al. (eds.), International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy 2016, International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-42508-5_13
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The first IPBES work programme for the period 2014–2018 is designed to put the Platform on the right path, firmly establishing its working modalities, deliverables, credibility, relevance, legitimacy and reputation.5 In the work programme it is mentioned that the intention is to pave the way for the incremental strengthening of the science-policy interface for biodiversity and ecosystem services across scales, sectors and knowledge systems. Analytical work and the several assessments initiated under the work programme will be guided by the Platform’s conceptual framework.6 In essence the idea is that IPBES would have a similar synthesizing role to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).7 The IPBES is frequently compared to the IPCC, but these two platforms diverge on many points, the most important being the fundamental knowledge gaps “surrounding biodiversity, ecosystem services, and the relationships between them”.8 Plus, the methodology is different and the IPBES process pays a particular attention to Human sciences, including the law. Moreover, the experts are supposed to use an array of sources including the so called “grey literature”. This exception in the scope of international expertise is interesting for legal research as it allows indigenous local norms and regulation to be taken into consideration. Indeed, majority of knowledge in this field is not published in peer-reviewed law journals. The IPBES assessment t
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