Participation in the Second Authors Meeting of IPBES Values Assessment

In October, Sacha Amaruzaman, a PhD Candidate in the Centre for Global Food and Resources (GFAR) and Fellow in the IPBES Assessment on the Multiple Values of Nature, participated in the Second Authors Meeting of the assessment.

Environmental policy is not only influenced by scientific evidence, but also the values that dictate how society interacts with their environment. The multiple values of nature need to be well represented in the policy process, to improve policy outcomes and generate a more sustainable development path.

Generally, policy acknowledges and is informed by a very narrow set of values of nature.

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is addressing this concern by conducting a Global Values Assessment regarding the concept and methods to integrate multiple values of nature into policy and decision-making.

The IPBES Values Assessment process will run from 2018 to 2021. About 70 experts and scientists participated in the Second Author Meeting in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain from 21-25 October 2019, to discuss their progress after reaching the first order draft of the chapters.

The assessment will elaborate the concept of values of nature, methods and approaches to assess the values of nature, values articulation in the policy and decision-making, scenarios for integrating multiple values into a just and sustainable future, and the operationalisation of integrating multiple values of nature into policy.

Sacha will continue his contribution to this global assessment, particularly in the last chapter about the operationalisation of values, while completing his PhD with GFAR.

In his thesis, Sacha is analysing natural resource management policies and farmers’ socio-psychological behaviour in the upland landscapes of Sumatra, Indonesia.

Sacha is in receipt of an Australia Awards Scholarship from the Government of Australia.