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Social sciences

IPBES disciplinary gaps still gaping

Nature volume 530, page 160 (2016)Cite this article

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The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) convenes this month to approve summaries for policymakers of the first assessments at its fourth plenary.

Despite early calls for IPBES to draw on a broader range of disciplines than did the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (see E. Turnhout et al. Nature 488, 454–455; 2012), the social sciences and the humanities remain markedly under-represented. They make up less than 10% of the membership of IPBES expert groups, instead of the recommended 30%. These disciplines should play a bigger part in IPBES assessments and in implementing the first IPBES work programme for 2014–18.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Cambridge, UK

    Alice B. M. Vadrot

  2. Philipps University Marburg, Germany

    Jens Jetzkowitz

  3. University of Leeds, UK

    Lindsay C. Stringer

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  1. Alice B. M. Vadrot
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  2. Jens Jetzkowitz
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  3. Lindsay C. Stringer
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Correspondence to Lindsay C. Stringer.

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Vadrot, A., Jetzkowitz, J. & Stringer, L. IPBES disciplinary gaps still gaping. Nature 530, 160 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/530160b

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