SWIZTERLAND

	National Focal Point:  Dr. Eva Spehn, Swiss Biodiversity Forum, Swiss Academy of Sciences SCNAT
	eva.spehn@scnat.ch
	+41 31 306 93 42
	www.ipbes.ch

HOW IS SWITZERLAND ORGANISED TO GET ENGAGED IN IPBES

Switzerland is one of the founding member of IPBES. The Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) is responsible for the participation of Switzerland to IPBES (Swiss Focal Point).

In support to the Swiss Focal Point, the Swiss National Platform for IPBES (IPBES-CH) was created in 2012 to engage the Swiss expert community in IPBES and to coordinate the flow of information between IPBES and the Swiss science community, policy and the old. 

The Swiss Biodiversity Forum, in close cooperation with the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), organises the national IPBES interface for the Swiss biodiversity science-policy landscape. Switzerland has a high density of experts and organisations in various national and international networks.

Main activities of the IPBES-CH platform: 

• Coordination of the national nomination processes in response to the international IPBES calls for experts. 
• Organisation and coordination of national IPBES expert meetings. 
• Information of the national scientific community about IPBES activities. 
• Advertising calls published by IPBES (e.g. call for reviews) via its website and mailing list. 
• Provision of support (financial, administrative) to the experts nominated by the Government and selected by IPBES. 
• Analyses of IPBES documents and preparation of the Swiss position for the IPBES plenaries. 
• Scientific advice, identification of needs for research. 
• Public relations and media work.
• All calls published by IPBES (experts, review processes) are advertised on the IPBES-CH website, and are also circulated to our mailing list. 

NOMINATION PROCESS 

IPBES selects experts for the elaboration of its reports (coordinating lead authors, lead authors or review editors) on the basis of nominations from Governments and relevant stakeholders. The Swiss Biodiversity Forum, as the science-policy interface for biodiversity in Switzerland is identifying and selecting experts to be nominated for IPBES. The formal nomination is done by the Federal Office for the Environment. 

The following criteria are applied to select IPBES nominations for Switzerland: 

• Scientific/technical expertise demonstrated through publication record in a discipline and subject relevant to the work programme deliverable, or demonstrable expertise in other relevant knowledge systems
• Editorial experience, where relevant
• Experience of collaboration in large/international programmes or networks
• Availability and commitment to attend meetings as necessary for the relevant deliverables and to working between meetings to an intensive timetable, and where relevant: Experience of leading major collaborative programmes/international collaborative partnerships/networks (for co- chairs, coordinating lead authors, task force members) 

Experts may be nominated for more than one deliverable, as long as they meet the relevant criteria. Nominations are limited to Swiss nationals, residents or Swiss-based institutions. As far as possible, the FOEN may provide financial support for travel expenses to nominated experts.

CONTRIBUTION TO THE IPBES WORK PROGRAMME

•  IPBES National information meetings to inform stakeholders in Switzerland about IPBES and to raise awareness about opportunities and ways of participating in IPBES.
• Newsletters by email to all IPBES stakeholders in policy and administration, basic and applied biodiversity research, NGOs, private sector, museums & data holding institutions, and media.
• Valorisation of IPBES product at the national level: communications with the media, info meetings, website.

SPECIFIC PROJECTS

In 2015, the Swiss IPBES Platform helped to establish the coordination of the IPBES Regional Assessment of Europe and Central Asia: co-chair (Prof. Markus Fischer) and technical support unit (Amor Torre-Marin Rando and André Mader) at the University of Bern, Switzerland.

TYPE OF ENGAGEMENT WITH STAKEHOLDERS

The Swiss IPBES Platform engages stakeholders at the national level, by organising a yearly IPBES information event, and at the regional level. We organised the 2nd Pan-European Stakeholder Conference in Basel, and co-organsised and -financed PESC-3 in Leipzig and PESC-4 in Hungary.