Professor Suh Young-bae of Seoul National University was elected as the Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES*) representing Asia Pacific. The Ministry of Environment announced that Prof. Shu was elected the next (2nd) Vice-Chair at the fourth plenary of IPBES that took place from February 20 to 28 at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

IPBES, launched in 2012, is an intergovernmental policy platform for scientific advice to the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), playing similar roles as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC**) under the Convention on Climate Change.
 

* (IPBES) Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
** (IPCC) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

IPBES, launched in 2012, is an intergovernmental policy platform for scientific advice to the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), playing similar roles as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC**) under the Convention on Climate Change.

The group of chairs consists of 10 members, two from five regions under the United Nations (Asia Pacific, Western Europe/Other, Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America) with one chair and four vice chairs.

For the Asia-Pacific region, five candidates from Korea, China, Iran and Indonesia (2) were registered and went through ten rounds of meetings during the plenary session. After a fierce competition among candidates, Korea and Iran were finally selected as the chair group and each will serve as the vice chair in order (Iran –Korea).

With the election of Prof. Suh as IPBES Vice-Chair, Korea turned out a global leader of global science body in the field of biodiversity along with climate change, following the election of Prof. Lee Hoe-sung as the IPCC Chair last year.

In particular, Prof. Suh’s election shows that the international community speaks highly of Korea’s effort in biodiversity. Korea has successfully hosted the CBD COP 12 in 2014 at Pyeongchang and has taken a leading role from the establishment of IPBES. In addition, National Institute of Ecology (NIE) hosted and has operated the Technical Support Unit under IPBES for collecting and analyzing necessary knowledge and data.

As Professor of Pharmacy at Seoul National University for over 20 years, Prof. Suh has made numerous research achievements and served as a member of IPBES Chair Group and the Chair of Asia Regional Committee for IUCN.

At the plenary, IPBES adopted and delivered the ‘Thematic assessment of pollinators, pollination and food production’ as the first achievement since its establishment in 2012, getting off the ground as a science-policy body.

About 80 world-renowned scholars joined in writing the first global assessment on pollination. Prof. Jung Chuleui at Andong University was one of the key authors.

The report warns a decrease in the number of pollinators including bees and butterflies for 5-8% of the world’s food crops (USD 235 t0 577 billion annually) and suggests policy alternatives including developing alternative agricultural pesticides and limiting the scope of intensive agriculture.

Members also agreed on the working plan for the ‘Global assessment on biodiversity and ecosystem service,’ a key research project of IPBES, during the plenary session and plan to assess the status and threats of global biodiversity by 2019.

“As IPCC played a pivotal role in providing science-based advice to climate change negotiations and the new climate regime, IPBES will strengthen its functions and make achievements in near future to facilitate joint effort of the international community for biodiversity conservation,” said Joo Dae-young, Director General of International Cooperation Bureau at the Ministry of Environment. “Prof. Suh’s election as IPBES Vice-Chair will not only further develop IPBES but also help Korea’s biodiversity research to be globally recognized,” he added.