Abstract This paper reviews the early history of IPBES and focuses on epistemic choices that occurred early on in its establishment and assessment work. Firstly, it examines the challenges of handling both the vast amount of data and their associated uncertainties in trying to produce authoritative global assessments of the on-going biodiversity loss. Secondly, the paper discusses the debates around the social relevance of these assessments, and the influence of a period where economic rhetoric was taking prominence in conservation. The central argument of the paper is that an engagement with the early history of IPBES and the issues of ‘uncertainty’ and ‘economic rhetoric’ are central to the ongoing debate over transformative change and important if we wish to understand how IPBES assessments can sustain authority in the future.

中文翻译：

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在 IPBES 的早期历史中建立权威和相关性

摘要 本文回顾了 IPBES 的早期历史，并重点关注在其建立和评估工作早期发生的认知选择。首先，它研究了在尝试对正在进行的生物多样性丧失进行权威的全球评估时处理大量数据及其相关不确定性所面临的挑战。其次，本文讨论了围绕这些评估的社会相关性的辩论，以及经济言论在保护中占据突出地位的时期的影响。该论文的中心论点是，参与 IPBES 的早期历史以及“不确定性”和“经济言论”问题是正在进行的关于转型变革的辩论的核心，如果我们希望了解 IPBES 评估如何维持权威，这一点很重要将来。