Africa is a biodiversity-rich continent where communities are highly dependent on natural resources for sustenance and livelihoods. However, “there are limited information on wild species used as food, and estimates on the number of wild plant species that are used across different regions are unclear” (IPBES Sustainable Use Assessment report, 2022). “To address current and projected future pressures, concerted interventions will be needed to implement and scale up policy actions that have been shown to support the sustainable use of wild species” (IPBES Sustainable Use Assessment report, 2022), and the recognition and integration of the diverse values of nature and nature’s contributions to people (IPBES values assessment, 2022).

Hence, within the framework of its objectives related to the establishment and development of science-policy-practise platforms to support the the domestic uptake of policy recommendations in IPBES assessments, CABES organized its first regional workshop on: “Co-developing strategies for sustainability in Africa: Utilising products of the Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)”, held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire from October 25^th – 27^th 2022. 

The objectives of the workshop were to present the CABES programme, raise awareness on IPBES work programme, how to engage, and co-design domestic pathways for national uptake of IPBES products, including the new assessments on sustainable use and values. More than 130 stakeholders from about African countries and beyond were in attendance.