IPBES-6 is expected to finalize and launch five science-policy assessment reports and summaries for policy makers: a thematic assessment on Land Degradation and Restoration; and regional assessments on human induced challenges and opportunities in the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Africa, and Europe and Central Asia.

The assessments review and summarize best available evidence for decision-makers to make informed decisions that balance the needs of people and nature. All five assessments also evaluate progress and lessons learned in the context of global agreements and targets including the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Ahead of the meeting, the IPBES Secretariat released a series of primers providing background information and key issues discussed in the five assessments:

• Hot topics in the Americas include loss of natural habitat, climate change, invasive alien species and urbanization and decline of rural communities.
• Hot topics in Asia and the Pacific include adapting to climate change, containing deforestation and ecosystem degradation, impacts of trade and globalization, and ocean and coastal pollution.
• Hot topics in Africa include trade-offs in the water-energy-food nexus, drivers of change in nature’s contribution to people in Africa, and options for effective governance.
• Hot topics in Europe and Central Asia include transboundary ecological footprints, progress on the Aichi Targets and policy mix options across sectors.
• The assessment on Land Degradation and Restoration focuses on threats to land-based ecosystems and available evidence on actions to halt and reverse land degradation.

The five assessments are part of IPBES’s Work Programme 2014-2018 adopted at IPBES-3. The Platform adopted its first assessment reports during IPBES-4. IPBES-5 focused on institutional and procedural issues, including indigenous and traditional knowledge, policy support tools and methodologies, IPBES’s second work programme, and scoping reports for future assessments. See our analysis of IPBES-5 here.

IPBES 6 will be held 18 to 24 March 2018 in Medellin, Colombia. The Plenary session will be preceded by a Stakeholder Day on 17 March which provides an opportunity for interested organizations to receive updates on the IPBES process and discuss their engagement.