Building capacity for the science-policy interface on biodiversity and ecosystem services: Activities, fellows, outcomes, and neglected capacity building needs

Karin M Gustafsson,Isabel Díaz-Reviriego,Esther Turnhout

doi:10.1016/j.esg.2020.100050

Abstract

Capacity building has been identified as being of importance for the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). As the IPBES is becoming an influential expert organization, it is essential to examine what capacity building means in its context, what capacities it has built, and what implications these capacities have. This study explores these issues by focusing on the IPBES's general strategy for capacity building, the IPBES's fellowship programme and to what extent there are additional capacity building needs that can be addressed. The study shows that the IPBES has focused its capacity building efforts on the science side of the science-policy interface while, thus far, it has neglected to build capacities on the policy side of the interface. The study provides insight into how capacity building for the science-policy interface sets preconditions for science-policy relations at different levels and scales within biodiversity and ecosystem services and beyond.

Highlights

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) was established in 2012 with the overall objective “to strengthen the science-policy interface for biodiversity and ecosystem services for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, long-term human well-being and sustainable development” (UNEP, 2010: 5)
The IPBES aims to build capacity on all societal levels, from the individual to the organizational, community, and national levels. For this to be possible, the IPBES's work on capacity building consists of a combination of capacity building projects, including projects run by the IPBES, such as the fellowship programme, and projects that are headed by partner organizations, such as the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Network (BESNet)
While the identified capacity building needs suggest that the IPBES intends to use capacity building as a means to preidentify ends, we have seen that in practice, the fellows can identify and pursue their own needs

Summary

Introduction

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) was established in 2012 with the overall objective “to strengthen the science-policy interface for biodiversity and ecosystem services for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, long-term human well-being and sustainable development” (UNEP, 2010: 5). The study will explore to what extent there are additional capacity building needs that may need to be addressed concerning the IPBES's prioritization to enhance capacity for effective participation in implementing the platform's work programme Through this three-dimensional focus, this study allows the analysis of the design and outcomes of the IPBES's capacity building function, as well as the analysis of what possible implications these outcomes may have on the sciencepolicy interface for biodiversity and ecosystem services in particular and on science-policy relations in general. For any entitydbe it an individual, an organization, a community, or a nationdto have capacity, it needs to have relevant capital, such as human, social, institutional and economic capital in the form of, e.g., skills, knowledge, trust, values, and networks (Beckley et al, 2008; Moore et al, 2006). Capacity building for the science-policy interface could actively contribute to creating new knowledge, skills, values, and social processes that will set preconditions for how relations between science and policy are ideally to be understood and how the science-policy interface, as a consequence, is to be organized in practice (cf. Beckley et al, 2008; Franks, 1999; Moore et al, 2006)

Conceptualizing capacity building

Analyzing capacity building

Capacity building through the fellowship programme

Prospects for capacity building beyond the fellowship programme

Discussing capacity building in the IPBES

Conclusions

Declaration of competing interest