Glossary definitions

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A natural or anthropogenic feature which separates land uses.

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.

Comprises urban design, land use and the transportation system, and encompasses patterns of human activity within the physical environment.

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).

The resulting negative impacts of ecosystem use and management on people and nature, including distant, diffuse and delayed impacts.

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.

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.

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.

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.

An increase in density of shrubby or bushy tree vegetation in savannah or grassland systems.

Meat for human consumption derived from wild animals.

A form of subsistence hunting that entails the harvesting of wild animals for food and for non-food purposes, including for medicinal use.

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.

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.

See “wild meat”.

IPCC term case assumes that future developments follow those of the past and no changes in policies will take place.

The incidental capture of non-target species. The portion of a commercial fishing catch that consists of marine animals caught unintentionally.

The commercially undesirable species caught during a fishing process.

The ways in which people understand who they are, their belonging and role in society, and their relation to their broader environment.

The harvesting, processing, transporting, buying or selling of timber in contravention of national and international laws.

Illegal is defined in the context of this assessment when it violates laws and regulations.

A broad term which includes: fishing and fishing-related activities conducted in contravention of national, regional and international laws; non-reporting, misreporting or under- reporting of information on fishing operations and their catches; fishing by “Stateless” vessels; fishing in convention areas of Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) by non-party vessels; fishing activities which are not regulated by States and cannot be easily monitored and accounted for.

Non-tangible aspects of cultural value that are passed from one human generation to the next.

A formal, evidence-based procedure that assesses the economic, social and environmental effects of public policy or of any human activity.

changes to nature, nature’s contributions to people, and/or the good quality of life (Ricciardi et al., 2013). Impacts can be observed or unobserved. More specifically, impacts to nature (formerly ‘ecological impact’), is defined as a measurable change to the properties of an ecosystem (Ricciardi et al., 2013), and implies that all introduced species can have an impact, even when not yet established or widespread, which may vary in magnitude, simply by integration into the ecosystem.

A Key Biodiversity Area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for bird populations.

The conservation of ecosystems and natural habitats and the maintenance and recovery of viable populations of species in their natural surroundings and, in the case of domesticated or cultivated species, in the surroundings where they have developed their distinctive properties.

An economic concept that seeks to incorporate natural capital into national wealth estimates, beyong GDP.

Absence of a common unit along which values can be measured and compared.

Limited evidence, recognising major knowledge gaps.

A quantitative or qualitative factor or variable that provides a simple, measurable and quantifiable characteristic or attribute responding in a known and communicable way to a changing environmental condition, to a changing ecological process or function, or to a changing element of biodiversity.

Natural and modified ecosystems including significant biodiversity, ecological services and cultural values voluntarily conserved by indigenous and local communities through customary laws or other effective means.

Indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) refers to dynamic bodies of integrated, holistic, social and ecological knowledge, practices and beliefs pertaining to the relationship of living beings, including people, with one another and with their environments.

Indigenous and local knowledge systems are social and ecological knowledge practices and beliefs pertaining to the relationship of living beings, including people, with one another and with their environments. Such knowledge can provide information, methods, theory and practice for sustainable ecosystem management.

Social and ecological knowledge practices and beliefs pertaining to the relationship of living beings, including people, with one another and with their environments. Such knowledge can provide information, methods, theory and practice for sustainable ecosystem management.

A cumulative body of knowledge, practice and belief, evolving by adaptive processes and handed down through generations by cultural transmission, about the relationship of living beings (including humans) with one another and with their environment. It is also referred to by other terms such as: indigenous, local or traditional knowledge; traditional ecological/environmental knowledge (TEK); farmers' or fishers' knowledge; ethnoscience; indigenous science; folk science.

The knowledge, practices and innovations embedded in the relationships of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities to nature. ILK is situated in a place and social context, but at the same time open and hybrid, continuously evolving through the combination of written, oral, tacit, practical, and scientific knowledge attained from various sources, and validated by experimentation and in practice of direct interaction with nature. See chapter 1 (section 1.3.2.1) and chapter 2.2 (section 2.2.2) for a discussion on the differences between ‘indigenous knowledge’ and ‘local knowledge’.

Indigenous and local knowledge holders are understood to be persons situated in the collective knowledge systems of indigenous peoples and local communities with knowledge from their own indigenous peoples and local communities; indigenous and local knowledge experts are understood to be persons from indigenous peoples and local communities who have knowledge about indigenous and local knowledge and associated issues (they may also be indigenous and local knowledge holders); and experts on indigenous and local knowledge are understood to be persons who have knowledge about indigenous and local knowledge and associated issues, not necessarily from indigenous peoples and local communities.

A cumulative body of knowledge, practice and belief, evolving by adaptive processes and handed down through generations by cultural transmission, about the relationship of living beings (including humans) with one another and with their environment. It is also referred to by other terms such as: Indigenous, local or traditional knowledge, traditional ecological/environmental knowledge, farmers’ or fishers’ knowledge, ethnoscience, indigenous science, folk science.

Social and ecological knowledge practices and beliefs pertaining to the relationship of living beings, including people, with one another and with their environments. Such knowledge can provide information, methods, theory and practice for sustainable ecosystem management.

Human communities that are self- identified as indigenous; descent from the occupants of a territory prior to an act of conquest; possession of a common history, language, and culture regulated by customary laws that are distinct from national cultures; possession of a common land; exclusion or marginalization from political decision-making; and claims for collective and sovereign rights that are unrecognized by the dominating and governing group(s) of the state. Indigenous Peoples are often thought of as the primary stewards of the planet's biological resources. Their ways of life and cosmovisions (value systems that interpret and relate the world, life, things and time) have contributed to the protection of the natural environment on which they depend.

Social groups of indigenous peoples.

Are the holders of unique languages, knowledge systems and beliefs and possess invaluable knowledge of practices for the sustainable management of natural resources based on their traditional values, visions, needs and priorities. Are inheritors and practitioners of unique cultures and ways of relating to people and the environments. Indigenous people have retained social, cultural, economic and political characteristics that are distinct from those of the dominant societies in which they live.

Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) are, typically, ethnic groups who are descended from and identify with the original inhabitants of a given region, in contrast to groups that have settled, occupied or colonized the area more recently.