IPBES Welcomes New Multidisciplinary Expert Panel Members To the 19th Meetings of the IPBES MEP and Bureau
Bonn, 26 September 2022. This week, from 27-29 September, the IPBES secretariat is hosting the 19th meetings of the IPBES Multidisciplinary Expert Panel (MEP) and Bureau, at its headquarters on the UN Campus in Bonn, Germany. It is the first in-person meeting for the majority of MEP members, having only recently been elected by the IPBES Plenary.
The MEP is a group of outstanding scientific experts, representing a wide range of disciplines, who oversee and support the scientific work and processes of IPBES. Made up of five experts from each of the five regions – Africa, Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as Western Europe and other States – the MEP provides the governments that are the members of IPBES with advice on the scientific and technical aspects of the IPBES work programme; guides the selection of experts who are nominated to work on IPBES deliverables; oversees the work of the expert groups and taskforces; and ensures that IPBES assessments are carried out in accordance with the highest scientific standards.
Nominated by their respective regions, MEP members are elected by the member States of IPBES during sessions of the IPBES Plenary – to serve a three-year term of office, renewable once. At the ninth session of the IPBES Plenary, held this past July in Bonn, the new MEP was elected, consisting of:
Africa
Prof. Christopher Gordon (University of Ghana)
Dr. Luthando Dziba (South African National Parks)
Prof. Eric Fokam (University of Buea)
Dr. Dorothy Nyingi (National Museums of Kenya)
Prof. Mohammed Taleb (Université Mohammed 5 de Rabat)
Asia-Pacific
Dr. David Magintan (Department of Wildlife and National Parks, Peninsula Malaysia)
Dr. Shizuka Hashimoto (University of Tokyo)
Dr. Madhav Karki (Tribhuwan University)
Prof. Ning Wu (Chinese Academy of Sciences)
Dr. Rizwan Irshad (Ministry of Climate Change, Pakistan)
Eastern Europe
Dr. Rovshan Abbasov (Khazar University)
Dr. Alla Aleksanyan (Institute of Botany of National Academy of Sciences, Armenia)
Prof. Özden Görücü (Kahramanmaraş Sutcu Imam University)
Prof. Mihaela Antofie (University Lucian Blaga of Sibiu)
Prof. Milan Mataruga (University of Banja Luka)
Latin America and the Caribbean
Dr. Adriana Flores-Díaz (Universidad Iberoamericana)
Dr. Antonio Diaz-de-Leon (Innovative Cutting Edge Solutions)
Prof. Germán Andrade (Universidad EAN)
Dr. Marie-Louise Felix (Sir Arthur Lewis Community College)
Prof. Ricardo Motta Pinto Coelho (RMPC- Meio Ambiente Sustentável)
Western Europe & Other States
Dr. Carolyn Lundquist (University of Auckland)
Dr. Catherine Febria (University of Windsor)
Prof. Isabel Sousa Pinto (University of Porto and Ciimar)
Prof. Josef Settele (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ)
Dr. Markus Fischer (University of Bern)
The meetings this week will also mark the last in-person gathering of the outgoing IPBES Bureau.
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