Senckenberg Topics

IPBES Global Assessment Report 2019


The report covers a comprehensive description about the state of global ecosystems and their diversity. It answers important key questions about changes, knowledge gaps, international and social responsibilities as well as future development goals to ensure the preservation and protection of our nature and environment. 

The loss of nature endangers our economy, the basis of life, food security and the quality of life for people around the world.  

What now?

The opposite quotes are results of various assessments of IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services), produced with the help of international experts. 

Deriving from these assessments, possible future courses of action to protect biological diversity are given to policy-makers in order to support their work. At present, 130 states are members of IPBES, and Germany hosts the secretary’s office of IPBES in Bonn.

IPBES at Senckenberg

From 07/30 to 08/03/2018, a meeting between high-ranking international researchers was held at Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural Museum in Frankfurt. The researchers worked on the global assessment about “biodiversity and ecosystem services”. 

The report’s 150 lead-authors from 50 different countries met at Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre.

One of the lead-authors of the chapter „Scenarios and Pathways towards a Sustainable Future“ is Prof. Dr. Thomas Hickler of the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (SBiK-F). He is head of the research group Biogeography and Ecosystem Ecology

Also other Senckenberg researchers are involved in IPBES research projects: Dr. Hanieh Saeedi, team member of Crustacea at Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, will be researching the status of invasive alien species with 90 international experts for the next 4 years. Dr. Saeedi was selected for the prestigious IPBES Fellowship Programme, which takes part in producing important assessments about various topics of the biodiversity research.  

More facts from the report

  • Up to one million species are threatened with extinction, many of them already within the next decades.
  • Species extinction today is at least ten to one hundred times higher than the average of the last ten million years.
  • Half of the living corals have disappeared since 1870.
  • The world’s forest area is only 68% compared to the pre-industrial age.
  • 75 % of the land surface and 66 % of the sea surface are altered by human influence.
  • Over 85% of wetlands have been lost in the last 300 years.
  • The Aichi Biodiversity Targets of the CBD, which were to be achieved by 2020, will be missed by a wide margin. In addition, the achievement of the United Nations’ sustainability goals adopted in 2015 is also being critically discussed.