Citing the destruction of forests in Southeast Asia from the unregulated or lightly regulated oil palm industry, SCB's Africa Section is urging governments and societies in Africa to formulate effective policies that will prevent similar loss of biodiversity in Africa from the expansion of industrial oil palm production.

In 1998, former SCB Berkeley Chapter President Jodi Hilty served as a key organizer of the first ever student-organized Bay Area Conservation Biology Symposium. This May, Hilty will be back at the popular symposium, now in it's 16th year, when it convenes at UC Berkeley, this time as the keynote speaker.

IPBES seeks nominations for experts for global, regional and sub-regional assessments of biodiversity and ecosystem services and land degradation and restoration. Nominations may be submitted by governments and organizations who are members of the Platform. Nominations are due on 31 March.

Here is an opportunity for SCB members to contribute to IPBES. The platform issued a call for expert reviewers for pollination and policy support tools. Reviews are open until 2 March 2015.

SCB was well represented at the IPBES-3 Plenary session in Bonn, Germany. IPBES committee member Carolyn Lundquist recaps the impact of SCB and the meeting outcomes, from the stakeholders days to the plenary sessions.