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Glossary definitions

The IPBES glossary terms definitions page provides definitions of terms used in IPBES assessments. Some definitions in this online glossary have been edited for consistency. Please refer to the specific assessment glossary for citations/authorities of definitions. 

We invite you to report any errors or omissions to [email protected].

Concept Definition Deliverable(s)
transitional pathway

A course of actions and strategies that aim to achieve the vision. They are closely related to policy or target-seeking scenarios.

Europe and Central Asia assessment
translocation

The human-mediated movement of living organisms from one area, with release in another.

Asia-Pacific assessment
tree-covered area

A land cover class that includes any geographic area dominated by natural tree plants with a cover of 10 percent or more. Areas planted with trees for afforestation purposes and forest plantations are included in this class.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
trees outside forest

All trees excluded from the definition of forest and other wooded lands. Trees outside the forest are located on other lands, mostly on farmlands and built-up areas, both in rural and urban areas.

Asia-Pacific assessment
trend

The general direction in which the structure or dynamics of a system tends to change, even if individual observations vary.

Sustainable use assessment, Scenarios and models assessment
trend

A general development or change in a situation or in the way that people are behaving.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
trend

temporal trends are directional long-term changes (i.e., decades to centuries) in numbers of species, populations or individuals introduced, or the spatial extent of colonization (Buckland et al., 2017). In this assessment report, trends are presented as indicators of species numbers (species richness) and rates of accumulation of species (e.g., first records of a species in a given location) over time.

Invasive alien species assessment
trophic cascades

The chain of knock-on extinctions observed or predicted to occur following the loss of one or a few species that play a critical role (e.g. as a pollinator) in ecosystem functioning.

Europe and Central Asia assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment, Sustainable use assessment
trophic level

The level in the food chain in which one group of organisms serves as a source of nutrition for another group of organisms (e.g. primary producers, primary or secondary consumers, decomposers).

Europe and Central Asia assessment, Americas assessment, Sustainable use assessment
trophic level

The level in the food chain in which one group of organisms serves as a source of nutrition for another group of organisms.

Global assessment (1st work programme), Land degradation and restoration assessment
trophic transfer

The transport of contaminants between two trophic levels (Suedel et al., 1994).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
trophy hunting

Trophy hunting is defined as the hunting for one or more individuals of a particular species with specific desired characteristics (such as large size or antlers) with the payment of a fee by a hunter for a hunting experience and trophy. The most common trophy is the mounted head with horns or antlers, although other parts of animal body ( skins, tails, teeth, heads) or even the whole bodies can be also appreciated as a trophy.

Sustainable use assessment
turbidity

Turbidity describes the cloudiness of water caused by suspended particles such as clay and silts, chemical precipitates such as manganese and iron, and organic particles such as plant debris and organisms.

Americas assessment
water footprint

The measure of humanity's use of fresh water as represented in volumes of water consumed and/or polluted.

Land degradation and restoration assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme)
water footprint

The water footprint measures the amount of water used to produce each of the goods and services we use. It can be measured for a single process, such as growing rice, for a product, such as a pair of jeans, for the fuel we put in our car, or for an entire.

water grabbing

A situation where powerful actors are able to take control of, or reallocate to their own benefits, water resources already used by local communities or feeding aquatic ecosystems on which their livelihoods are based (Mehta et al., 2012).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
water logging

An excess of water on top and/or within the soil, leading to reduced air availability in the soil for long periods.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
water purification

Vegetation, and specially aquatic plants, can assist in removing sediments and nutrients and other impurities from water.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
water security index

The ratio of total water withdrawal to the water availability including environmental flow requirements. Higher WSI values lead to decreasing water security.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
water security

The capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of and acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development, for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability.

water security

The capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of and acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development, for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution, water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
water security

The reliable availability of an acceptable quantity and quality of water for health, livelihoods and production, coupled with an acceptable level of water-related risks.

Asia-Pacific assessment
water security

The capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of and acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio- economic development, for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability.

Africa assessment, Americas assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment
water stress

Physiological stress experienced by a plant as a result of a lack of available moisture or a low water potential in the surrounding soil; an instance of this. Economic or political pressures in a country or region as a result of insufficient access to fresh water.

Global assessment (1st work programme), Asia-Pacific assessment
water stress

Water stress occurs in an organism when the demand for water exceeds the available amount during a certain period or when poor quality restricts its use.

Europe and Central Asia assessment, Africa assessment, Americas assessment
water table

The upper surface of the zone of ground water.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
water use efficiency

The ratio between effective water use and actual water withdrawal. In irrigation, it represents the ratio between estimated plant water requirements (through evapotranspiration) and actual water withdrawal.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
weed

A plant that is a pest (q.v.) in a particular circumstance.

Pollination assessment
welfare

See 'Social welfare'.

Global assessment (1st work programme), Sustainable use assessment
welfare

The provision of a minimal level of well- being (q.v.) and social support for all citizens.

Pollination assessment
well established (certainty term (q.v.))

Consensus from a comprehensive meta- analysis7 or other synthesis, or multiple independent studies that agree.

Pollination assessment
wellbeing (human)

Human well-being is a state in which there is opportunity for satisfying social relationships and where human needs are met, where one can act meaningfully to pursue one's goals and where one enjoys a satisfactory quality of life”.

Sustainable use assessment
wellbeing

A perspective on a good life that comprises access to basic materials for a good life, freedom and choice, health and physical well-being, good social relations, security, peace of mind and spiritual experience.

Scenarios and models assessment
wellbeing

A perspective on a good life that comprises access to basic resources, freedom and choice, health and physical well-being, good social relationships, security, peace of mind and spiritual experience. Human well-being is a state of being with others and the environment. Well-being is achieved when individuals and communities can act meaningfully to pursue their goals and everyone can enjoy a good quality of life. The concept of human well-being is used in many western societies and its variants, together with living in harmony with nature, and living well in balance and harmony with Mother Earth.

Land degradation and restoration assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment
wellbeing

A perspective on a good life that comprises access to basic resources, freedom and choice, health and physical well-being, good social relationships, security, peace of mind and spiritual experience. Well-being is achieved when individuals and communities can act meaningfully to pursue their goals and can enjoy a good quality of life. The concept of human well- being is used in many western societies and its variants, together with living in harmony with nature, and living well in balance and harmony with Mother Earth. All these are different perspectives on a good quality of life.

Africa assessment
wellbeing

A perspective on a good life that comprises access to basic resources, freedom and choice, health and physical well-being, good social relationships, security, peace of mind and spiritual experience. Well-being is achieved when individuals and communities can act meaningfully to pursue their goals and can enjoy a good quality of life. The concept of human well-being is used in many western societies and its variants, together with living in harmony with nature, and living well in balance and harmony with Mother Earth. All these are different perspectives on a good quality of life.

Americas assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment
wellbeing

A perspective on a good life that comprises access to basic resources, freedom and choice, health and physical well-being, good social relations, security, peace of mind and spiritual experience. Human wellbeing is a state of being with others and the environment. Wellbeing is achieved when individuals and communities can act meaningfully to pursue their goals and everyone can enjoy a good quality of life.

Pollination assessment
wellbeing (human)

A perspective on a good life that comprises access to basic resources, freedom and choice, health and physical, including psychological, well- being, good social relationships, security, equity, peace of mind and spiritual experience. Well-being is achieved when individuals and communities can act meaningfully to pursue their goals and can enjoy a good quality of life. The concept of human well-being is used in many western societies and its variants, together with living in harmony with nature, and living well in balance and harmony with Mother Earth. All these are different perspectives on a good quality of life.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
western culture

(Also called modern science, Western scientific knowledge or international science) is used in the context of the IPBES conceptual framework as a broad term to refer to knowledge typically generated in universities, research institutions and private firms following paradigms and methods typically associated with the scientific method consolidated in Post-Renaissance Europe on the basis of wider and more ancient roots. It is typically transmitted through scientific journals and scholarly books. Some of its central tenets are observer independence, replicable findings, systematic scepticism, and transparent research methodologies with standard units and categories.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
western culture

(Also called modern science, Western scientific knowledge or international science) is used in the context of the IPBES conceptual framework as a broad term to refer to knowledge typically generated in universities, research institutions and private firms following paradigms and methods typically associated with the ‘scientific method’ consolidated in Post-Renaissance Europe on the basis of wider and more ancient roots. It is typically transmitted through scientific journals and scholarly books. Some of its central tenets are observer independence, replicable findings, systematic scepticism, and transparent research methodologies with standard units and categories.

Sustainable use assessment
western science

(Also called modern science, Western scientific knowledge or international science) is used in the context of the IPBES conceptual framework as a broad term to refer to knowledge typically generated in universities, research institutions and private firms following paradigms and methods typically associated with the ‘scientific method' consolidated in Post-Renaissance Europe on the basis of wider and more ancient roots. It is typically transmitted through scientific journals and scholarly books. Some of its central tenets are observer independence, replicable findings, systematic scepticism, and transparent research methodologies with standard units and categories.

Americas assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment
western science

Also called modern science, Western scientific knowledge or international science, and used in the context of the IPBES conceptual framework as a broad term to refer to knowledge typically generated in universities, research institutions and private firms following paradigms and methods typically associated with the scientific method consolidated in Post-Renaissance Europe on the basis of wider and more ancient roots. It is typically transmitted through scientific journals and scholarly books. Some of its central tenets are observer independence, replicable findings, systematic scepticism, and transparent research methodologies with standard units and categories.

wetland

Areas that are subject to inundation or soil saturation at a frequency and duration, such that the plant communities present are dominated by species adapted to growing in saturated soil conditions, and/or that the soils of the area are chemically and physically modified due to saturation and indicate a lack of oxygen; such areas are frequently termed peatlands, marshes, swamps, sloughs, fens, bogs, wet meadows, etc.

Sustainable use assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme), Americas assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme), Land degradation and restoration assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment
widespread species

species that are able to maintain viable populations across a range of environments leading to a large range size. Widespread species are likely to experience a large range of ecological and climatic conditions within their range. A large niche width – based on the current distribution of a species – seems to be a general pattern in widespread species

Invasive alien species assessment
wild food

Wild foods are food products obtained from non-domesticated species.

Sustainable use assessment
wild habitat

See 'Natural habitat'.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
wild habitat

See “Natural habitat”.

Sustainable use assessment
wild meat

Wild meat is defined as meat for human consumption derived from wild species.

Sustainable use assessment
wild pollinator

A pollinator that can live without human husbandry. Some may depend on agricultural settings for survival.

Pollination assessment
wild relative

Wild species related to crops, including crop progenitors.

Global assessment (1st work programme), Sustainable use assessment