A Rosetta Stone for Nature’s Benefits to People

Abstract

After a long incubation period, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity andEcosystem Services (IPBES) is now underway. Underpinning all its activities is the IPBESConceptual Framework (CF), a simplified model of the interactions between nature andpeople. Drawing on the legacy of previous large-scale environmental assessments, the CFgoes further in explicitly embracing different disciplines and knowledge systems (includingindigenous and local knowledge) in the co-construction of assessments of the state of theworld?s biodiversity and the benefits it provides to humans. The CF can be thought of as akind of ?Rosetta Stone? that highlights commonalities between diverse value sets and seeksto facilitate crossdisciplinary and crosscultural understanding. We argue that the CF willcontribute to the increasing trend towards interdisciplinarity in understanding and managingthe environment. Rather than displacing disciplinary science, however, we believe that theCF will provide new contexts of discovery and policy applications for it.