Get Involved

Are you motivated to contribute to the preservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services? Please join ONet, an open-ended network of IPBES stakeholders. There are lots of ways that you can get involved – please feel welcome to do so!

 

1. ONet webspace

Once you have joined ONet, you will be able to log in to the website and access more functionality, including the following:

  1. Post comments on any of the items appearing under ‘News’

  2. Submit a Blog article, and post comments on other blogs. There is no limit to how often you can contribute and posts can be anything with a link to biodiversity/nature – it is very broad. Please use this space to share your experience, ideas, or to start a discussion.

  3. Post relevant Events to let others know about them. The ONet facilitation team will add information about events organised by ONet, but we welcome everyone to post about any other events relevant to IPBES work that they know of.

  4. See the list of current members, including job title, affiliation and expertise.

 

2. Webinars

Take part in ONet webinars. ONet held webinars on stakeholder engagement, organized a serie of webinar with researcher sharing about their work and organized Caucus event to discuss between ONet members opportunity of engagement with IPBES, prepare plenary, answer IPBES call etc. The facilitation team will continue to organise more webinars and online event. Let us know if there is a topic you think should be covered! The upcoming events will be listed in the Events section, and promoted in the ONet mailing list and on ONet social media channels.

 

3. Social media

Follow ONet on social media to stay up to date on what is going on. Let us know that you are a member of ONet so that we can follow you and promote your events and posts. You can find ONet on facebook and twitter.

 

4. ONet Caucus Day

ONet organises a Caucus Day each year which takes place in advance of the IPBES plenary. This is intended to prepare for the IPBES plenary and to facilitate exchanges with other stakeholders and knowledge holders on stakeholder engagement in IPBES processes. Since Covid Pandemic, Caucus Day took place online to allow as much participation as possible from around the world, even for the ones who can't travel to Stakeholder day. In person meeting are still planned at Stakeholder day as well as during plenary to provide time and space to discuss issues related to the ONet network. Please feel very welcome to attend future Caucus Days if you can as well as join ONet meeting at IPBES plenary.

 

5. IPBES Stakeholder Days

Stakeholder Days are open to all IPBES stakeholders and typically take place in the days before the Plenary. The focus is on IPBES activities and processes, as well as on the current Plenary agenda. 

 

6. IPBES plenary.

It is possible to access the plenary as an observer (i.e. without speaking or voting rights). ONet has observer status and two members represent ONet at each plenary. However, many more members of ONet are also observers and take part in the plenary. For example, the YESS network is part of ONet but they have observer status in their own right. Organisations are also allowed to apply for observer status; for example, research institutes, universities, governmental bodies and NGOs. A list of accredited observers can be found here. By requesting observer status for your organisation, you may also be granted observer status in the plenaries.

ONet are accorded additional rights and are allowed to make an opening statement during the start of each IPBES plenary. This is a great occasion to highlight issues that are being neglected or to encourage progress which is already being made. The statement is prepared collaboratively with ONet members and IPBES stakeholders during the Stakeholder Days (although inputs may be sought before this time through online forms or email requests etc.). If there is time in the schedule, ONet are also allowed to present a closing statement, often reflecting on points which arose during the Plenary. If you have a good idea for the opening statement, please share it during the Caucus or Stakeholder Days, or before by email. Or why not start a blog discussion on this topic?

 

7. Email

The members of the ONet facilitation team  are ordinary members of ONet who volunteer their time to help to manage the network. We would welcome your ideas, suggestions and initiatives (onet.ipbes@gmail.com). There may be some delay before you get a response due to the voluntary nature of the network.

 

8. Over to you

If you have an idea or initiative that you would like to pursue, we encourage you to do so. Members of ONet are warmly encouraged to propose initiatives and organise events or working groups to address specific topics. The facilitation team can support you by advertising these events and promoting them to the ONet membership.