IPBES core glossary

A group of people who inhabit or perform ongoing activities in a shared geographic space, who interact with one another, share similar values, identity, and heritage that form a basis for communal rules regulating collective behavior.

Initiatives by indigenous peoples and local community organizations to monitor their community’s well-being and the state of their territories and natural resources, applying a mix of traditional knowledge and innovative tools and approaches. It is a system that promotes evidence-based policymaking while empowering communities to participate in the process.

A broad term used to describe models of forest management that give local people the majority say in making decisions. Similar terms include participatory forest management, collaborative forest management, social forestry, and community-based forest management. With an aim to reduce poverty, community forestry is participatory and should serve all community members equitably.

Decentralized system of forest resource management designed to promote more equitable outcomes for stakeholders’ livelihoods changing relationships between stakeholders and government agencies.

Institutions and/or processes involving Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in the protection of biodiversity aimed at promoting the coexistence of people and nature. This includes -but is not restricted to- Indigenous Peoples’ and community conserved territories and areas (see 'ICCAs').

See Community Based Natural Resource Management.

Processes involving the participation of community members in a range of observation and measurement activities to maintain awareness of ecological and social factors affecting a community .

An approach to natural resource management that involves the full participation of indigenous peoples’ and local communities and resource users in decision-making activities, and the incorporation of local institutions, customary practices, and knowledge systems in management, regulatory, and enforcement processes. Under this approach, community-based monitoring and information systems are initiatives by indigenous peoples and local community organisations to monitor their community’s well-being and the state of their territories and natural resources, applying a mix of traditional knowledge and innovative tools and approaches.

an approach to natural resource management that involves the full participation of indigenous peoples' and local communities and resource users in decision- making activities, and the incorporation of local institutions, customary practices, and knowledge systems in management, regulatory, and enforcement processes. Under this approach, community-based monitoring and information systems are initiatives by indigenous peoples and local community organizations to monitor their community's well-being and the state of their territories and natural resources, applying a mix of traditional knowledge and innovative tools and approaches.

Community-based natural resource management: an approach to natural resource management that involves the full participation of indigenous peoples' and local communities and resource users in decision-making activities, and the incorporation of local institutions, customary practices, and knowledge systems in management, regulatory, and enforcement processes. Under this approach, community-based monitoring and information systems are initiatives by indigenous peoples and local community organisations to monitor their community's well-being and the state of their territories and natural resources, applying a mix of traditional knowledge and innovative tools and approaches.

Community-based natural resource management: an approach to natural resource management that involves the full participation of indigenous peoples? and local communities and resource users in decision-making activities, and the incorporation of local inst.

Community-based tourism is defined as an approach to tourism development which prioritizes the needs and desires of the host community.

Decentralized system of forest resource management designed to promote more equitable outcomes for stakeholders’ livelihoods changing relationships between stakeholders and government agencies.

A given project attains zero net biodiversity loss when its unavoidable impacts on biodiversity are balanced out or compensated by actions such as conservation, rehabilitation, restoration and/or compensation of residual impacts that avoid or minimize losses. In this case, compensation refers to environmental compensation and not socioeconomic compensation to the people who are affected by the project’s impact.

The second stage of cognitive process. Perceptions are selected, organized, classified and hierarchized into concepts. This process is influenced by collective filters which are human systems of values, norms, and beliefs. Concepts do not come alone, but as integrated networks. See also ‘Reality’; Perceptions; Worldviews”.

The Platform's conceptual framework is a tool for building shared understanding across disciplines, knowledge systems and stakeholders of the interplay between biodiversity and ecosystem drivers, and of the role they play in building a good quality of life.

See certainty.

Conflict is defined as when levels of armed violence due to political insecurity, instability, or civil or international war are substantially higher than in non-conflict times. This leads to a disruption of economies, government services and the extensive movement of people to flee conflict zones for personal safety and/or better opportunities.

Refers to a situation where opposing attitudes, beliefs, identities, interests, norms or values coexist. This can lead to an active disagreement between people. Conflicts are likely to arise when individuals or groups in a given decision-making process feel their values are being ignored; or when they cannot agree on the underlying value rationality, or the way in which values will be integrated, traded-off or reconciled to inform a given decision. When different values collide in a decision-making situation, the conflict can be described as a value conflict.

The proportion of possible links between species that actually occur (or have been observed to occur).

in the context of management of biological invasions, bodies of water that are directly or indirectly connected to an ocean or a main river (e.g., cryosphere, shelf ecosystems and coastal areas).

Approach to managing agro-ecosystems for improved and sustained productivity, increased profits and food security while preserving and enhancing the resource base and the environment. It is characterized by three linked principles, namely: (i) continuous minimum mechanical soil disturbance; (ii) permanent organic soil cover; and (iii) diversification of crop species grown in sequences and/or associations. This covers a wide range of approaches from minimum till to permaculture/mimicking nature.

Approach to managing agro-ecosystems for improved and sustained productivity, increased profits and food security while preserving and enhancing the resource base and the environment. It is characterized by three linked principles, namely: 1) continuous minimum mechanical soil disturbance; 2) permanent organic soil cover; and 3) diversification of crop species grown in sequences and/or associations. This covers a wide range of approaches from minimum till to permaculture/mimicking nature.

The positive impacts on people and ecosystems due to conservation.

The branch of biological science concerned with the conservation, management, and protection of vulnerable species, populations, and ecosystems. Also see 'Biological conservation'.

Voluntary, typically permanent, partial interest in property created through agreement between a landowner and a nonprofit land trust or government agency in which a landowner agrees to land-use restrictions, usually in exchange for a payment, tax reduction, or permit.

A financial mechanism to deliver funding to community groups and individuals for conservation works and, sometimes, permanently protect biodiversity (Australian Government, Department of the Environment and Energy).

The difference between the total amount that consumers are willing and able to pay for a good or service (indicated by the demand curve) and the total amount that they actually do pay (i.e. the market price), or the difference between the consumers' willingness to pay for a commodity and the actual price (equilibrium price) they pay.

the application of measures in and around an infested area to prevent spread of invasive alien species. Containment may also apply in the context of keeping an invasive alien species out of a defined geographic region within a broader infestation (in pest management this is also termed area-wide management) (FAO, 2019). Any action taken to delimit the distribution of an invasive alien species through whatever means possible.

Substance or agent present in the soil as a result of human.

The gently sloping, shelf-like part of the seabed adjacent to the coast extending to a depth of about 200m.

The often steep, slope-like part of the seabed extending from the edge of the continental shelf to a depth of about 2,000m.

The contingent valuation method is used to estimate economic values for all kinds of ecosystem and environmental services. It can be used to estimate both use and non-use values.

direct action(s) taken to reduce or suppress the distribution, abundance, spread and impacts of invasive alien species within a defined geographic area (FAO, 1995) (see management).

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is an international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.

Farming methods that rely on high inputs of machinery, fossil fuels and synthetic chemicals, including fertilizers and pesticides. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) may also be used. Despite the term conventional, such agricultural methods have evolved only since the industrial revolution (19th century) and became widespread after the mid-20th century. It is also referred to sometimes as industrial agriculture”.