The first session of a plenary meeting on the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) will adopt the platform's rules of procedure and modalities for participation and membership. The plenary is also set to hear offers from governments to host the platform's secretariat and is expected to decide on a detailed work programme and budget. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) will convene the meeting, working closely with the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), the UN Development Programme (UNEP) and other relevant organizations. The plenary will be in the form of an open-ended intergovernmental meeting, which is provisionally scheduled for two sessions. Two sessions of the plenary meeting are necessary to allow IPBES to become fully operationalized. At the first session, it is expected that government representatives will consider the draft principles and procedures governing the work of IPBES, its governance structure, the processes for nomination and election of officers and the nomination and selection of host institution(s) and host country for the platform. The second session will then be in a position to determine these modalities and institutional arrangements and consider the detailed draft work programme.  

dates: 3-7 October 2011   location: Nairobi, Kenya   e-mail: ipbes.unep@unep.org   www: http://enb.iisd.org/ipbes/sop1/