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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Asia-Pacific assessment |
bushmeat |
See “wild meat”.
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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 |
water footprint |
The measure of humanity's use of fresh water as represented in volumes of water consumed and/or polluted.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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Land degradation and restoration assessment |
water purification |
Vegetation, and specially aquatic plants, can assist in removing sediments and nutrients and other impurities from water.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Europe and Central Asia assessment, Africa assessment, Americas assessment |
water table |
The upper surface of the zone of ground water.
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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.
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Global assessment (1st work programme) |
weed |
A plant that is a pest (q.v.) in a particular circumstance.
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Pollination assessment |
welfare |
See 'Social welfare'.
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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.
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Pollination assessment |
well established (certainty term (q.v.)) |
Consensus from a comprehensive meta- analysis7 or other synthesis, or multiple independent studies that agree.
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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”.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Land degradation and restoration assessment |