The IPBES conceptual framework — connecting nature and people

The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) was established in 2012 as an independent intergovernmental body open to all member countries of the United Nations, with the goal of ‘strengthening 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’ (http://www. ipbes.net). Developed in the wake of other international assessments, specifically the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), IPBES was designed to proactively develop assessments matched to policy needs, and to support capacity building across scales and topics [1,2]. To achieve this objective, IPBES has four intercon- nected functions: to catalyse the generation of new knowledge; to produce assessments of existing knowledge; to support policy formulation and implementation; and to build capacities relevant to achieving its goal. The first public product of IPBES was a conceptual frame- work to underpin all these functions, to structure the syntheses that will inform policy, and to improve com- parability across various assessments carried out at different spatial scales, on different themes, and in different regions