INTERNAS – Knowledge transfer of international environmental assessments

The first workshop took place in Berlin on 23 May 2018. It focused on the results of the regional IPBES Assessment for Europe and Central Asia (ECA) and discussed biodiversity concerns that are present in the public, civil society and political sphere. It fostered a discussion about biodiversity mainstreaming and how it could be implemented in administrative and political processes.

Central questions were: How does the mainstreaming work in several different areas in Germany? What is needed for a better integration of biodiversity concerns in Germany? Are there political instruments and processes that can enhance and improve biodiversity mainstreaming?

There were several discussion rounds in the workshop that dealt with

1.     1. The mainstreaming of biodiversity in various political processes

2.     2. Options for mainstreaming in future political processes

The second workshop took place in Berlin on 12 November 2018. It focused on guidance and implementation proposals provided by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) on pollinators and biodiverse landscapes. The workshop looked at two political processes more closely: the next EU CAP Reform and the action program for Insect Protection by the Federal Government of Germany.

The first focus group discussion took place in the Haus der Wissenschaften in Bremen on 06 February 2019. The title of the discussion was “Improving the habitat quality and a sustainable use of the German North Sea”. A variety of experts discussed possible planning and policy options for an improved use of the North Sea. In particular, the World Ocean Assessment by the United Nations and the Global report by IPBES were discussed. The focus group provided an overview and a narrowing down of relevant topics that were then deepened in the third workshop.

The title of this workshop was “Protection and sustainable use of the German North Sea and Baltic Sea – measures for an ecological enhancement”. The workshop took place in the Haus der Wissenschaften in Bremen on 12 June 2019. During this event, different members of the civil society, administration and politics discussed a range of options for an ecological enhancement of the German North Sea and Baltic Sea, and a reduction of polluting discharges. The focus was on marine spatial planning as an important political control mechanism. Guidance and implementation measures proposed in the IPBES Global report and the 6^th Global Environment Outlook (GEO) of the United Nations were discussed, also in synopsis with political planning strategies from the German context.

In 2020, INTERNAS will focus on the UN Sustainability Goals (SDGs), especially on their significance for German marine research policy and German forest policy. The current occasion is the beginning of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Sciences for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) and the updating of the German forest strategy until 2050. In this knowledge transfer and consulting process we will base on the Delphi method. In this, defined experts are interviewed independently of one another. The summarized and anonymized results are presented to these experts again in a second round in order to delve deeper into the subject matter.
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