Open AccessIPBES and Biodiversity Expertise: Regional, Gender, and Disciplinary Balance in the Composition of the Interim and 2015 Multidisciplinary Expert Panel
Author(s) -
Montana Jasper,
Borie Maud
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
conservation letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.153
H-Index - 79
ISSN - 1755-263X
DOI - 10.1111/conl.12192
Subject(s) - interim , ecosystem services , multidisciplinary approach , biodiversity , discipline , environmental resource management , corporate governance , science policy , political science , environmental planning , ecosystem , business , ecology , public administration , geography , biology , environmental science , finance , law
The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is an expert institution expected to transform the governance of biodiversity and ecosystem services. IPBES expands on previous initiatives and positions itself as a knowledge‐policy interface open to different ways of knowing biodiversity. In this contribution, we analyze how the principles of regional, gender, and disciplinary balance that were adopted by IPBES have been applied to the Multidisciplinary Expert Panel (MEP): the body of experts responsible for the scientific and technical functions of IPBES and embedded in its knowledge‐making practices. In doing so, we compare the selection of the interim MEP in 2013 with the new MEP in 2015 and find a small improvement in gender and disciplinary balance that varies across the United Nations regional groupings. According to the ambition of IPBES, there is significant room for improvement, but “opening‐up” expertise in an intergovernmental setting proves challenging.