brackish water |
Water that has more salinity than fresh water, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing of seawater with fresh water, as in estuaries, or it may occur in brackish fossil aquifers. Technically, brackish water contains between 0.5 and 30 grams of salt per litre—more often expressed as 0.5 to 30 parts per thousand (‰), which is a specific gravity of between 1.005 and 1.010. Thus, brackish covers a range of salinity regimes and is not considered a precisely defined condition.
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Asia-Pacific assessment |
breadth |
refers to change across multiple spheres, with emerging consensus that transformation requires co-evolutionary change across different spheres of society, including personal, economic, political, institutional and technological ones.
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Values assessment |
bridging organizations |
offer a means to improve environmental management outcomes by spanning the science-policy interface to allow for the effective sharing of data, information, and knowledge. Bridging organizations are institutions that use specific mechanisms such as working groups to link and facilitate interactions among individual actors in a management setting.
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Invasive alien species assessment |
broad values |
They refer to life goals, general guiding principles and orientations towards the world that are informed by people’s beliefs and worldviews. Broad values include moral principles, such as justice, belonging, freedom, but also life goals, like enjoyment, health, prosperity. Broad values influence specific values and provide them with a general context and meaning.
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Values assessment |
buen vivir |
Although no universal definition of buen vivir has been attained yet, it has four common constitutive elements: (a) the idea of harmony with nature (including its abiotic components); (b) vindication of the principles and values of marginalized/subordinated peoples; (c) the State as guarantor of the satisfaction of basic needs (such as education, health, food and water), social justice and equality; and (d) democracy. There are also two cross-cutting lines: buen vivir as a critical paradigm of Eurocentric (anthropocentric, capitalist, economistic and universalistic) modernity, and as a new intercultural political project.
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Global assessment (1st work programme), Americas assessment |
buen vivir |
An alternative to economic development-centered approaches, generally defined as forming part of the Andean indigenous cosmology, based on the belief that true wellbeing is only possible as part of a community in a broad sense, including people, nature and the Earth, linked by mutual responsibilities and obligations, and that the wellbeing of the community is above that of the individual.
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buffer (ecology) |
A natural or anthropogenic feature which separates land uses.
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Global assessment (1st work programme) |
buffer zones (protected areas) |
Areas between core protected areas and the surrounding landscape or seascape which protect the network from potentially damaging external influences and which are essentially transitional areas.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
built environment |
Comprises urban design, land use and the transportation system, and encompasses patterns of human activity within the physical environment.
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Land degradation and restoration assessment |
bumble bee |
Members of the bee genus Bombus; they are social insects that form colonies with a single queen, or brood parasitic or cuckoo bumblebees (previously Psithyrus). Currently 262 species are known, which are found primarily in higher latitudes and at higher altitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, although they also occur in South America and New Zealand (where they were introduced).
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Pollination assessment |
burden |
The resulting negative impacts of ecosystem use and management on people and nature, including distant, diffuse and delayed impacts.
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Sustainable use assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme) |
bureau |
The IPBES Bureau is a subsidiary body established by the Plenary which carries out the governance functions of the Platform. It is made up of representatives nominated from each of the United Nations regions, and is chaired by the Chair of IPBES.
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bureau |
Within the context of IPBES - a subsidiary body established by the Plenary which carries out the administrative functions agreed upon by the Plenary, as articulated in the document on functions, operating principles and institutional arrangements of the Platform.
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Scenarios and models assessment |
bureau |
The IPBES Bureau is a subsidiary body established by the Plenary which carries out the governance functions of IPBES. It is made up of representatives nominated from each of the United Nations regions and is chaired by the Chair of IPBES.
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Land degradation and restoration assessment |
bureau |
The IPBES Bureau is a subsidiary body established by the Plenary which carries out the governance functions of IPBES. It is made up of representatives nominated from each of the United Nations regions, and is chaired by the Chair of IPBES.
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Europe and Central Asia assessment |
bush encroachment |
An increase in density of shrubby or bushy tree vegetation in savannah or grassland systems.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
bushmeat |
Meat for human consumption derived from wild animals.
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Asia-Pacific assessment, Africa assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment, Americas assessment |
bushmeat hunting |
A form of subsistence hunting that entails the harvesting of wild animals for food and for non-food purposes, including for medicinal use.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
bushmeat hunting |
Bushmeat (or wild meat) hunting is a form of hunting that entails the harvesting of wild animals for food and for non-food purposes, including for medicinal use.
|
Sustainable use assessment, Africa assessment |
bushmeat hunting |
Bushmeat (or wild meat) hunting is a form of subsistence hunting that entails the harvesting of wild animals for food and for non-food purposes, including for medicinal use.
|
Asia-Pacific assessment |
bushmeat |
See “wild meat”.
|
Sustainable use assessment |
business-as-usual |
IPCC term case assumes that future developments follow those of the past and no changes in policies will take place.
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Asia-Pacific assessment |
bycatch |
The incidental capture of non-target species. The portion of a commercial fishing catch that consists of marine animals caught unintentionally.
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Sustainable use assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme) |
bycatch |
The commercially undesirable species caught during a fishing process.
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Europe and Central Asia assessment, Americas assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment |
gathering |
Gathering is defined as the removal of terrestrial and aquatic algae, fungi, and plants (other than trees) or parts thereof from their habitats. Gathering may, but often does not, result in the death of the organism. Gathering includes whole plant harvest and removal of above and/or below ground plant parts, as well as the fruiting bodies of macrofungi. It also includes removal of non-woody portions of trees (leaves, propagules, and bark). Where removal of propagules or death of an individual plant occurs (e.g. whole plant and root removal) effects on population sustainability are contingent upon factors including timing, frequency, and intensity of harvest. The harvest of wood and woody parts of trees is encompassed by the definition of logging.
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Sustainable use assessment |
gender |
The term gender refers to the socially-constructed expectations about the characteristics, aptitudes and behaviors associated with being a woman or a man. Gender defines what is feminine and masculine. Gender shapes the social roles that mean and women play and the power relations between them, which can have a profound effect on the use and management of natural resources. Gender is not based on sex or the biological differences between women and men; rather, gender is shaped by culture and social norms. Thus, depending on values, norms, customs and laws, women and men in different parts of the world have adopted different gender roles and relations. Within the same society, gender roles also differ by race/ethnicity, class/caste, religion, ethnicity, age and economic circumstances. Gender and gender roles then affect the economic, political, social, and ecological opportunities and constraints faced by both women and men (Convention on Biological Diversity, 2017). The framing of sex and gender as binaries is in fact a cultural ideology. The empirical reality is that sex is a spectrum, manifesting in a wide array of sex variance. Some people don't neatly fit into the categories of man or woman, or “male” or “female.” For example, some people have a gender that blends elements of being a man or a woman, or a gender that is different than either male or female. Some people don't identify with any gender, or their gender changes over time.
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Sustainable use assessment |
gene |
The basic physical and functional unit of heredity. Genes are made up of DNA, and occupy a fixed position (locus) on a chromosome. Genes achieve their effects by directing the synthesis of proteins.
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Global assessment (1st work programme), Sustainable use assessment |
gene flow |
The movement of individuals, and/or the genetic material they carry, from one population to another. Gene flow includes lots of different kinds of events, such as pollen being blown to a new destination or people moving to new cities or countries.
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Global assessment (1st work programme) |
general circulation model |
A numerical representation of the physical processes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and land surface based on the physical, chemical and biological properties of their components, their interactions and feedback processes, and accounting for all or some of its known properties.
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Land degradation and restoration assessment |
generalist species |
A species able to thrive in a wide variety of environmental conditions and that can make use of a variety of different resources (for example, a flower-visiting insect that lives on the floral resources provided by several to many different plants).
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Americas assessment, Sustainable use assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment |
genetic composition |
The composition in alleles of a population.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
genetic diversity |
The variation at the level of individual genes, which provides a mechanism for populations to adapt to their ever-changing environment. The more variation, the better the chance that at least some of the individuals will have an allelic variant that is suited for the new environment, and will produce offspring with the variant that will in turn reproduce and continue the population into subsequent generations.
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Sustainable use assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme) |
genetic engineering |
The artificial manipulation, modification, and recombination of DNA or other nucleic acid molecules in order to modify an organism or population of organisms.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme), Sustainable use assessment |
genetic erosion |
The loss of genetic diversity, including the loss of individual genes or particular combinations of genes, and loss of varieties and crops.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
genetic resources |
Genetic material of actual or potential value.
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Global assessment (1st work programme), Sustainable use assessment |
genetically modified organism |
Organism in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally by mating and/or natural recombination (WHO, 2014). The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety defines 'living modified organism' as any living organism that possesses a novel combination of genetic material obtained through the use of modern biotechnology.
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Global assessment (1st work programme) |
genetically modified organism |
The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety defines 'living modified organism' as any living organism that possesses a novel combination of genetic material obtained through the use of modern biotechnology.
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Sustainable use assessment |
genotype |
The genetic constitution of an individual or group.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
geographic information systems |
A computer-based tool that analyses, stores, manipulates and visualizes geographic information on a map.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
geographic range |
The geographic range of a species is the geographic boundary within which it occurs.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
germplasm |
Living tissue from which new plants can be grown. It can be a seed or another plant part - a leaf, a piece of stem, pollen or even just a few cells that can be turned into a whole plant.
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Global assessment (1st work programme) |
gini index |
In economics, the Gini coefficient (sometimes expressed as a Gini ratio or a normalized Gini index) is a measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent the income or wealth distribution of a nation's residents and is the most commonly used measure of inequality.
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Global assessment (1st work programme), Land degradation and restoration assessment |
gini index |
The Gini index measures the extent to which the distribution of income (or, in some cases, consumption expenditure or other variables) among individuals or households within an economy deviates from a perfectly equal distribution. A Gini index of 0 represents perfect equality, while an index of 100 implies perfect inequality.
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global |
adj. Pertaining to the whole world.
|
Pollination assessment |
global commons pool resources |
Common pool resources (CPR) that have a global nature, such as the atmosphere, the oceans, global species diversity, migratory species, global biogeochemical processes, among others. It does not refer to property rights, such as a common property system. In general, CPR include natural and human‐ constructed resources in which (i) exploitation by one user reduces resource availability for others, and (ii) exclusion of beneficiaries through physical and institutional means is especially costly. These two characteristics ‐ difficulty of exclusion and subtractability ‐ create potential CPR dilemmas in which people following their own short‐term interests produce outcomes that are not in anyone’s long‐term interest.
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Global assessment (1st work programme) |
global commons pool resources |
Global commons are resources at a planetary scale that are outside national jurisdictions. International law identifies four global commons: the high seas; the atmosphere; Antarctica; and outer space, which are recognized as the common heritage of humankind (UNEP Division of Environmental Law and Conventions).
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Sustainable use assessment |
global north - global south |
The Global South and the Global North is a terminology that distinguishes not only between political systems or degrees of poverty, but between the victims and the benefactors of global capitalism.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme), Sustainable use assessment |
global warming |
The observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth’s climate system and its related effects.
|
Asia-Pacific assessment |
globalisation |
The process by which life forms, process, products or ideas become distributed worldwide.
|
Pollination assessment |
goal-seeking scenarios |
see target- seeking scenarios.
|
Scenarios and models assessment |