An international gathering on biodiversity policy took place recently in Seoul. Korea’s Ministry of Environment and its National Institute of Ecology (NIE) hosted the first meeting of the Task Force on Knowledge and Data (TFKD) of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services (IPBES) from June 3 to 6 in Korea.

About 40 people participated in the meeting. Attendees included IPBES Secretariat Anne Larigauderie, NIE President Choe Jae Chun and experts in biodiversity from Korea and elsewhere. The meeting was held after the IPBES’s decision this March which allowed the NIE to launch a Technical Support Unit (TSU) that will support the task force.

Participants discussed the roles and functions of the TFKD and its TSU. They also shared their views on the effective use of biodiversity information services and the organization and management of the support unit.




Mentioning the knowledge-generation and policy support functions of the IPBES, Secretariat Larigauderie emphasized the importance of the task force and of its support unit.

NIE President Choe introduced the goals and roles of the NIE and explained the ongoing biodiversity and ecosystem research that's taking place in Korea. He also shared some of the knowledge generated by the support unit.

Director Yu Ho of the Global Environment Division at the environment ministry said, “This meeting will help raise public awareness of biodiversity and ecosystem information services and lay the foundation for related research.”

Based in the German city of Bonn, the IPBES is an intergovernmental organization under the U.N. Established by 94 governments in 2012, its goals are to provide scientific knowledge for policy cooperation among countries, to protect biodiversity and to achieve sustainable development.

By Yoon Sojung
Korea.net Staff Writer
arete@korea.kr