environmental education |
The facilitation of an integrated perception of the problems of the environment, enabling more rational actions capable of meeting social needs to be taken.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme), Sustainable use assessment |
environmental envelope |
The environmental envelope of a species is defined as the set of environments within which it is believed that the species can persist: that is where its environmental requirements can be satisfied (see niche). Many large-scale vegetation or species models are based on environmental envelope techniques.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
environmental governance |
Environmental governance, as a subclass of the broader governance concept, has been defined as “the set of regulatory processes, mechanisms and organizations through which political actors influence environmental actions and outcomes” (Lemos & Agrawal, 2006), and it “should be understood broadly so as to include all institutional solutions for resolving conflicts over environmental resources”.
|
Sustainable use assessment |
environmental gradient |
Environmental characteristics that explain the distribution of organisms and ecosystems in terms of environmental tolerances.
|
Sustainable use assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme) |
environmental hazard |
The potential occurrence of a natural or human-induced physical event or trend or physical impact that may cause loss of life, injury, or other health impacts, as well as damage and loss to property, infrastructure, livelihoods, service provision, ecosystems and environmental resources. In this report, the term hazard usually refers to climate- related physical events or trends or their physical impacts.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
environmental impact |
A measurable change to the properties of an ecosystem by a nonnative species. The logical implications of this definition are that (1) every nonnative species has an impact simply by becoming integrated into the system, (2) such impacts may be positive or negative and vary in magnitude on a continuous scale, and (3) impacts can be compared through time and across space.
|
Americas assessment |
environmental impact assessment |
A formal, evidence-based procedure that assesses the economic, social, and environmental effects of public policy or of any human activity.
|
Asia-Pacific assessment, Africa assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme), Americas assessment, Sustainable use assessment, Sustainable use assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment |
environmental impact assessment |
An assessment that assesses the impacts of planned activity on the environment in advance, thereby allowing avoidance measures to be taken: prevention is better than cure.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
environmental income |
An extraction from non-cultivated sources: natural forests, other non-forest wildlands such as grass-, bush- and wetlands, fallows, but also wild plants and animals harvested from croplands.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
environmental justice |
The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies.
|
Sustainable use assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme) |
environmental justice |
Fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, colour, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. Fair treatment means that no single group of people should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences arising from industrial, governmental, or commercial operations or policies. Meaningful involvement means that: (i) people must have the opportunity to participate in decisions about activities that may affect their environment and/or health; (ii) the public's contribution can influence the regulatory agency's decision; (iii) the public’s concerns will be considered in the decision-making process; and (iv) the decision makers must seek out and facilitate the involvement of those potentially affected.
|
Values assessment |
environmental kuznets curve |
The hypothesis of an inverted U-shaped relationship between economic output per capita and some measures of environmental quality: as GDP per capita rises, so does environmental degradation. However, beyond a certain point, increases in GDP per capita lead to reductions in environmental damage.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
environmental kuznets curve |
A hypothesized relationship between environmental quality and economic development: various indicators of environmental degradation tend to get worse as modern economic growth occurs until average income reaches a certain point over the course of development.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
environmental tax |
A tax whose tax base is a physical unit (or a proxy of it) that has a proven specific negative impact on the environment. Four subsets of environmental taxes are distinguished: energy taxes, transport taxes, pollution taxes and resources taxes.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
epifauna |
Animals living on or just above the seabed.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
epistemic community |
A professional network with recognized expertise and competence, and a claim for policy-relevant knowledge, in a particular domain (Haas, 1992).
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
epistemic justice |
Universal participation in terms of equality of all inquirers in access to information and knowledge. Disputes over meaning and importance, among powerful and powerless social groups, on what knowledge counts as true, valid and important in decision-making. The idea of epistemic injustice also relates to distributive unfairness in the distribution of epistemic or knowledge goods and services such as information or education.
|
Values assessment |
epistemology |
Epistemology is the theory of knowledge. It is concerned with how we know what we know; in other words, it relates to methods for producing knowledge (their assumptions, methods, scope).
|
Values assessment |
epizootics |
A disease outbreak affecting a species’ population at the same time.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
equitable |
Fair and impartial.
|
Asia-Pacific assessment |
equity |
Equity comprises three interlinked dimensions: Distributive equity highlights the need to consider not just the allocation of benefits, but also of costs and risks. Decisions about distribution can be justified on the basis of equality, social welfare, merit or need. Procedural equity encompasses fairness in political processes and participation in decision-making. Contextual equity recognises the fact that the playing field is never level, but that people's capabilities and their access to resources and power determine the extent to which they are able to utilise procedural equity to determine the best distributive outcome for themselves.
|
Africa assessment |
equity |
Fairness of rights, distribution, and access. Depending on context, this can refer to resources, services, or power.
|
Europe and Central Asia assessment |
eradication |
elimination/extirpation of an invasive alien species from a defined geographic area even in the absence of all preventive measures obviating the necessity for further control measures (Dowdle, 1998). The time period after which an invasive alien species can be considered eradicated depends on the species and location.
|
Invasive alien species assessment |
erodibility |
The ease with which a soil erodes, defined by its resistance to two energy sources: the impact of raindrops on the soil surface, and the shearing action of runoff between clods in grooves or rills.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
erosion hotspots |
Places identified with as having a high erosion potential.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
essential biodiversity variables |
Essential Biodiversity Variables are promoted by the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON). The idea behind this concept is to identify, using a systems approach, the key variables that should be monitored in order to measure biodiversity change. The Essential Biodiversity Variables are an intermediate layer of abstraction between raw data, from in situ and remote sensing observations, and derived high-level indicators used to communicate the state and trends of biodiversity.
|
Sustainable use assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme) |
essential biodiversity variables |
Essential Biodiversity Variables are promoted by the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON). The idea behind this concept is to identify, using a systems approach, the key variables that should be monitored in order to measure biodiversity change. The EBVs are an intermediate layer of abstraction between raw data, from in situ and remote sensing observations, and derived high-level indicators used to communicate the state and trends of biodiversity.
|
Scenarios and models assessment |
essential biodiversity variables |
measurement required for study, reporting, and management of biodiversity change
|
Invasive alien species assessment |
established alien species |
alien species which produce self-sustaining and viable populations for a given period of time, during which climatic extremes typical for the invaded region are experienced, without direct intervention by humans or despite human intervention
|
Invasive alien species assessment |
established but incomplete (certainty term (q.v.)) |
General agreement although only a limited number of studies exist but no comprehensive synthesis and, or the studies that exist imprecisely address the question.
|
Pollination assessment |
ethnobiology |
The study of dynamic relationships among peoples, biota, and environments, as encoded in the knowledge held by different societies and individuals. Its multidisciplinary nature allows it to examine complex, dynamic interactions between human and natural systems, and enhances our intellectual merit and broader impacts.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme), Sustainable use assessment |
euphotic zone |
The euphotic zone is the layer closer to the surface of the ocean or lake that receives enough light for photosynthesis to occur.
|
Asia-Pacific assessment |
eutrophic |
A condition of an aquatic system in which increased nutrient loading leads to progressively increasing amounts of algal growth and biomass accumulation. When the algae die off and decompose, the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water becomes reduced. In lakes, eutrophication leads to seasonal algal blooms, reduced water clarity, and, often, periodic fish mortality as a consequence of oxygen depletion.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
eutrophic |
A condition of an aquatic system in which increased nutrient loading leads to progressively increasing amounts of algal growth and biomass accumulation. When the algae die off and decompose, the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water becomes reduced.
|
Asia-Pacific assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme) |
eutrophic |
A condition of an aquatic system in which increased nutrient loading leads to progressively increasing amounts of algal growth and biomass accumulation. When the algae die off and decompose, the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water becomes reduced. The term is sometimes applied more broadly than just to aquatic systems.
|
Europe and Central Asia assessment |
eutrophication |
See Eutrophic.
|
Asia-Pacific assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme) |
eutrophication |
Nutrient enrichment of an ecosystem, generally resulting in increased primary production and reduced biodiversity. In lakes, eutrophication leads to seasonal algal blooms, reduced water clarity, and, often, periodic fish mortality as a consequence of oxygen depletion. The term is most closely associated with aquatic ecosystems but is sometimes applied more broadly.
|
Europe and Central Asia assessment, Americas assessment |
eutrophication |
Nutrient enrichment of an ecosystem, generally resulting in increased primary production and reduced biodiversity. In lakes, eutrophication leads to seasonal algal blooms, reduced water clarity, and, often, periodic fish mortality as a consequence of oxygen depletion. The term is most closely associated with aquatic ecosystems but is sometimes applied more broadly.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
evaluation (of models) |
see benchmarking and validation”.
|
Scenarios and models assessment |
evapotranspiration |
The sum of water loss from both plants and soil measured over a specific area.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
evenness |
In ecology, species evenness refers to the similarity of abundances of each species in an environment. It can be quantified by a diversity index as a dimension of biodiversity.
|
Pollination assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme) |
evolutionary adaptation |
The process whereby a species or population becomes better able to live in a changing environment, through the selection of heritable traits. Biologists usually distinguish evolutionary adaptation from acclimatisation, with the latter occurring within an organism’s lifetime.
|
IPBES-IPCC co-sponsored workshop on biodiversity and climate change |
evolutionary anthropology |
The interdisciplinary study of the evolution of human physiology and human behaviour and the relation between hominids and non-hominid primates. Evolutionary anthropology is based in natural science and social science.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
evolutionary biology |
A sub-discipline of the biological sciences concerned with the origin of life and the diversification and adaptation of life forms over time.
|
Sustainable use assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme) |
evolutionary distinctiveness |
Is a measure of how isolated a species or groups of species are in a phylogenetic tree. Regions with higher ED have more isolated lineages in them.
|
Americas assessment |
ex-ante assessment |
The use of policy- screening scenarios to forecast the effects of alternative policy or management options (interventions) on environmental outcomes.
|
Scenarios and models assessment |
ex-ante assessment |
The use of policy-screening scenarios to forecast the effects of alternative policy or management options (interventions) on environmental outcomes.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
ex-post assessment |
The use of policy- evaluation scenarios to assess the extent to which outcomes actually achieved by an implemented policy match those expected based on modelled projections,thereby informing policy review.
|
Scenarios and models assessment |
ex-post assessment |
The use of policy-evaluation scenarios to assess the extent to which outcomes actually achieved by an implemented policy match those expected based on modelled projections, thereby informing policy review.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
exclusive economic zone |
A concept adopted at the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (1982), whereby a coastal State assumes jurisdiction over the exploration and exploitation of marine resources in its adjacent section of the continental shelf, taken to be a band extending 200 miles from the shore. The Exclusive Economic Zone comprises an area which extends either from the coast, or in federal systems from the seaward boundaries of the constituent states (3 to 12 nautical miles, in most cases) to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometres) off the coast. Within this area, nations claim and exercise sovereign rights and exclusive fishery management authority over all fish and all Continental Shelf fishery resources.
|
Americas assessment |