Diversitas


Diversitas was an international research programme aiming at integrating biodiversity science for human well-being. In December 2014 its work was transferred to the programme called Future Earth, which was sponsored by the Science and Technology Alliance for Global Sustainability, comprising the International Council for Science, the International Social Science Council, the Belmont Forum of funding agencies, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations University and the World Meteorological Organization.

Diversitas mission

Biodiversity underpins the life-support system of our planet. Both natural and managed ecosystems deliver important ecological services such as the production of food and fibre, carbon storage, climate regulation and recreation opportunities.
The program was established to address the complex scientific questions posed by the loss in biodiversity and ecosystem services and to offer science-based solutions to this crisis.
The program is an international programme of biodiversity science with a dual mission:
The program achieves its mission by:
The international Secretariat is based in Paris, France, while the different core projects are based all around the world.

Diversitas history

Phase 1 (1991-2001): Biodiversity gains attention on the global scale

The program was established in 1991 by three international organizations: the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment and the International Union of Biological Science, at the time the need to address the complex scientific questions posed by the loss of and change in global biodiversity was identified. The goal of the initiative was to develop an international, non-governmental umbrella programme for research projects.
In 1996, the program welcomed two new sponsors, the International Council for Science and the International Union of Microbiological Societies.
The key findings during its first decade were synthesised in a series of books and laid the groundwork for experimental and theoretical research carried out by the program and the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme.
These findings also contributed to the Global Biodiversity Assessment, an initiative of the World Resources Institute, and to the work of the Convention on Biological Diversity, established in 1992, and with which Diversitas has a Memorandum of Understanding.

Phase 2 (2002-2011): An international framework for biodiversity science

In 2001, the program organised an international consultation of its stakeholders on the need to launch a second phase of the programme. The conclusions of this consultation were in favour of launching a second phase, which would be more integrative and inter-disciplinary, and more policy relevant.
The new science Plan was published in 2002. To implement this science plan, nine projects were established embracing a cycle of discovery, observation, analysis, and information sharing, on overarching scientific questions on biodiversity and related ecosystem services:
In addition to these scientific projects, the program has been strongly engaged in the Earth System Science Partnership, a partnership for the integrated study of the Earth System, the ways that it is changing, and the implications for global and regional sustainability.
During this second phase, the program continued its engagement in serving policy fora, and the Convention on Biological Diversity, in particular.
The program organized its first Open Science Conference in Oaxaca, Mexico, in October 2005, where the scientific community reiterated its support for the establishment of a scientific panel on biodiversity that included an intergovernmental component and its second Open Science Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, in October 2009; the Cape Town conference attracted an international audience of 700 scientists and policy makers from about 70 countries representing many facets of biodiversity science and policy.

Phase 3 (2012-2020): Biodiversity and ecosystem services science for a sustainable planet

Since mid-2009, and in the light of the changes in the biodiversity science-policy landscape, the program has been engaged in a phase of reviewing its activities and revising its 2002 Science Plan. The new science Plan was published in 2012.
During this on-going phase, the program has been or is being strongly involved in: