The IPBES Conceptual Framework - connecting nature and people

The first public product of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is its Conceptual Framework. This conceptual and analytical tool, presented here in detail, will underpin all IPBES functions and provide structure and comparability to the syntheses that IPBES will produce at different spatial scales, on different themes, and in different regions. Salient innovative aspects of the IPBES Conceptual Framework are its transparent and participatory construction process and its explicit consideration of diverse scientific disciplines, stakeholders, and knowledge systems, including indigenous and local knowledge. Because the focus on co-construction of integrative knowledge is shared by an increasing number of initiatives worldwide, this framework should be useful beyond IPBES, for the wider research and knowledge-policy communities working on the links between nature and people, such as natural, social and engineering scientists, policy-makers at different levels, and decision-makers in different sectors of society

Preliminary Assessment on the Interactions of Wasmannia auropunctata in Native Ant Communities (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of a Mosaic Gallery Forest/Savannah in Lope National Park, Gabon

International audienceThis study was carried out in a savannah/forest mosaic at the Lopé National Park, in Gabon. Ninety-six pitfall traps were used, 39 in gallery forest and 57 in savannah. The foragers of eighteen morph species were collected in both habitats: 16 in gallery forest and 15 in savannah. Wasmannia auropunctata is the most frequent in the gallery forest, recorded in 90% of the samples, against 55% in savannah. On the other hand, Pheidole megacephala was found in 80% of the samples, Camponotus negus in 75% and Polyrhachis latispina in 60%, all of them more frequent in savannah than in gallery forest. Generally speaking, the other species were found in both habitats, except Camponotus sericeus which forages only in the savannah. Interactions in the savannah are much more complex than in the gallery forest