Geographic and epistemic pluralism in the sources of evidence informing international environmental science–policy platforms: lessons learnt from the IPBES values assessment

Louise Guibrunet, David González-Jiménez , Gabriela Arroyo-Robles , Mariana Cantú-Fernández , Victoria Contreras , Daniela Flores Mendez , Arlen Valeria Ocampo Castrejón , Bosco Lliso , Ana Sofía Monroy-Sais , Tuyeni H. Mwampamba , Unai Pascual , Brigitte Baptiste , Mike Christie and Patricia Balvanera

Global Sustainability |

Abstract

This article examines the challenges and opportunities to integrate diverse sources of evidence in assessments produced by international platforms working at the science–policy interface. Diversity (or pluralism) of sources of literature, both in terms of their geographic origin and disciplinary focus, is essential for assessments to inform decision-making across social–ecological contexts. Using the recently completed ‘Methodological Assessment of the Diverse Values and Valuation of Nature’ of the Intergovernmental Science–Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services as a case, we find that significant effort has been dedicated to reviewing diverse literature. We discuss three strategies to expand pluralism in future assessments.

Cite this article

Guibrunet, L.; González-Jiménez, D.; Arroyo-Robles, G.; Cantú-Fernández, M.; Contreras, V.; Mendez, D. ; Castrejón, A. Ocampo; Lliso, B.; Monroy-Sais, A.; Mwampamba, T.; Pascual, U.; Baptiste, B.; Christie, M.; Balvanera, P.: Geographic and epistemic pluralism in the sources of evidence informing international environmental science-policy platforms: Lessons learnt from the IPBES values assessment. En: Global Sustainability, 7 , 2024 https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2024.23