Due to insufficient pledges to the IPBES Voluntary Trust Fund, delegates ultimately had to adopt a budget that does not allow for the initiation of any pending assessments to reduce the risk of incurring a budget shortfall in 2018, allowing for the Secretariat to proceed in “survival mode.” While some delegates expressed their frustration about the delay in initiating these assessments, others suggested the workload of ongoing assessments was already exceeding acceptable limits, saying the first IPBES work programme was overly ambitious.