IPBES core glossary

Cultural identity is the identity or feeling of belonging to, as part of the self-conception and self-perception to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality and any kind of social group that have its own distinct culture. In this way that cultural identity is both characteristic of the individual but also to the culturally identical group that has its members sharing the same cultural identity.

The culturally salient species that shape in a major way the cultural identity of a people, as reflected in the fundamental roles these species have in diet, materials, medicine, and/or spiritual practices.

Culturally keystone species designate species whose existence and symbolic value shape in a major way and over time, the cultural identity of a people, as reflected in the fundamental roles these species have in diet, materials, medicine, and/or spiritual practices.

Cultural landscapes express the long-term co-evolution and relationships between people and nature, influenced by internal and external forces affecting the aesthetic and productive configuration of land management, water bodies, wildlife, property systems, infrastructure and human settlements, and which are both a source and a product of changing social, institutional, economic, and cultural systems.

Cultural values are shared social values and norms, which are learned and dynamic, and which underpin attitudes and behavior and how people respond to events and opportunities, and affects the hierarchy of values people assign to objects, knowledge, stories, feelings, other beings, forms of social expressions, and behaviors.

A commonly accepted definition of culture refers to the system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviours, and artifacts that the members of society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning.

Culture is defined as a key determinant of, for example, what is defined as suitable food and preferred approaches to supporting human health.

An impact produced over a period of time.

The socially-embedded systems and institutions used within communities to regulate and manage land use and access, and which derive from the community itself rather than from the state.

Law consisting of customs that are accepted as legal requirements or obligatory rules of conduct; practices and beliefs that are so vital and intrinsic a part of a social and economic system that they are treated as if they were laws.

Customary law forms part of forms part of international and domestic law and stems from the customary norms of a particular group of peoples.

Law based on tradition in communities where the authority of traditional leadership is recognised. It exists where there is a commonly repeated practice which is accepted as law by the members of a community.

Law consisting of commonly repeated customs, practices and beliefs that are accepted as legal requirements or obligatory rules of conduct.

See Customary law.

Rights, such as land rights or political rights, that are granted by either customary or statutory law. Customary rights exist where there is a consensus of relevant actors considering them to be ‘law’.

Uses of biological resources in accordance with traditional cultural practices that are compatible with conservation or sustainable use requirements.

A Chinese philosophy based on the writings of Lao-tzu, advocating humility and religious piety.

adj. Ten years.

The characteristics and needs of any particular policy or decision-making process.

Approaches and techniques based on science and other knowledge systems, including indigenous and local knowledge, that can inform, assist and enhance relevant decisions, policy-making and implementation at the local, national, regional and international levels.

Variation in subjective human judgments, preferences, beliefs, world views (Section 1.6.3).

The process of making decisions can happen at the individual level or amongst groups and entails the prioritisation of certain values. This prioritization greatly influences which issues are found worthy of consideration, do and do not become part of the agenda, as well as determine which decision-makers are considered socially legitimate to participate in the process.

System for logical interpretation of evidence leading to decision options that can be objectively evaluated.

Breakdown of complex organic substances into simpler molecules or ions by physical, chemical and/or biological processes.

Decorative and aesthetic uses are defined as the uses of wild species in order to produce handicrafts and objects of adornment, beauty, and/or entertainment.

Wind erosion.

Human-induced conversion of forested land to non-forested land. Deforestation can be permanent, when this change is definitive, or temporary when this change is part of a cycle that includes natural or assisted regeneration.

Land in a state that results from persistent decline or loss of biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services that cannot fully recover unaided.

Land in a state that results from persistent decline or loss of biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services that cannot fully recover unaided within decadal timescales.

Started as an activist movement around 2008 and turned into an academic discipline, it starts from the premise that economic growth cannot be sustained ad infinitum on a resource constraint planet. It demands a deep societal change, denying the need for economic growth. It is unclear whether degrowth should be considered as a collectively consented choice or an environmentally-imposed inevitability.

A theoretical frame invoking the necessity of downscaling and re- localizing production.

A model describing transition in demographic profile of a population, which has been associated with the development process that transforms an agricultural society into an industrial one and characterized by a rapid population growth due to a decline in the death rate while fertility remains high initially; the growth rate then declines due to a decline in the birth rate. Before the transition's onset, population growth is low as high death rates tend to offset high fertility. After the transition, population growth is again below replacement level as both birth and death rates reach low levels.

A heterotrophic process of anaerobic microbial respiration conducted by bacteria. Denitrification is the microbial oxidation of organic matter in which nitrate or nitrite is the terminal electron acceptor, and the end product is N2.

Reduction of nitrates and nitrites to nitrogen by microorganisms.

The increase in woody plants in a savanna, grassland or woodland.

Decreased oxygen concentrations in the ocean, as a result of climate change and other anthropogenic stressors, e.g. nutrient input due to inefficient fertilizer use.