Connecting Science, Data, and Culture for Biodiversity

The credibility and legitimacy of biodiversity and climate assessments depend on the scope , quality, and inclusiveness of the knowledge and evidence they draw upon. As IPBES and IPCC advance their assessment cycles, questions of how evidence is synthesised across disciplines, whose knowledge is recognised, and how diverse value systems and knowledge systems—including Indigenous and local knowledge—have become increasingly important. Addressing these questions is essential to ensuring that assessments remain both scientifically robust and policy-relevant.
This joint webinar, hosted by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) and the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research (SGN), brings together expertise from science-policy interfaces and data governance, while exploring the role of cultural diversity in advancing biodiversity assessments and action.

The webinar opens with an introduction of IGES and SGN, outlining their respective roles within global science-policy platforms.
This is followed by a session on IPBES, moving from assessment support to implementation and highlighting how SGN and IGES contributions to the Platform strengthens the use of its assessments. This includes SGN’s work on data governance and the responsible use of AI, which advances transparent, fair, and open-access assessments and, in turn, supports their application in policy and practice.

The session also presents IGES’s engagement and dissemination efforts in Japan, including current and untapped potential uses of assessments by various actors. It also showcases how IGES’s support to the Scenarios and Models Task Force contributed to the dissemination of the Nature Futures Framework, which is increasingly applied beyond the Platform itself. After a short break, the final segment turns to the cultural dimensions of biodiversity, drawing on lessons from the Satoyama Initiative and on efforts to operationalise nature’s contributions to people with the ongoing colloquium on non-material NCPs. The session concludes with an open Q&A.

This joint webinar illustrates how scientific, technological, and cultural approaches can be woven together to strengthen the credibility, legitimacy, and relevance of biodiversity science-policy processes. It offers insights for researchers, policymakers, businesses and practitioners engaged in environmental governance.

The webinar will be delivered in English and Japanese, with simultaneous interpretation.