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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)
anthropogenic assets

Built-up infrastructure, health facilities, knowledge (including indigenous and local knowledge systems and technical or scientific knowledge, as well as formal and non- formal education), technology (both physical objects and procedures), and financial assets among others.

Pollination assessment, Scenarios and models assessment
anthropogenic assets

Built-up infrastructure, health facilities, or knowledge - including indigenous and local knowledge systems and technical or scientific knowledge - as well as formal and non-formal education, technology (both physical objects and procedures), and financial assets. Anthropogenic assets have been highlighted to emphasize that a good quality of life is achieved by a co-production of benefits between nature and societies.

anthropogenic assets

Built-up infrastructure, health facilities, or knowledge - including indigenous and local knowledge systems and technical or scientific knowledge - as well as formal and non-formal education, technology (both physical objects and procedures), and financial assets. Anthropogenic assets have been highlighted to emphasize that a good quality of life is achieved by a co-production of benefits between nature and people.

Global assessment (1st work programme), Asia-Pacific assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment
anthropogenic assets

Built-up infrastructure, health facilities, or knowledge - including indigenous and local knowledge systems and technical or scientific knowledge - as well as formal and non-formal education, work, technology (both physical objects and procedures), and financial assets. Anthropogenic assets have been highlighted to emphasize that a good quality of life is achieved by a co-production of benefits between nature and people.

Europe and Central Asia assessment, Americas assessment
anthropogenic biome

See 'Anthrome'.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
anthropogenic drivers

Drivers associated with human actions/activities that drive changes in biodiversity and ecosystems.

Scenarios and models assessment
anthropogenic impact

Impacts resulting from human activities.

Americas assessment
anthropogenic landscape

Areas of Earth's terrestrial surface where direct human alteration of ecological patterns and processes is significant, ongoing, and directed toward servicing the needs of human populations for food, shelter and other resources and services including recreation and aesthetic needs.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
anthropogenic pressure

Caused or influenced by humans.

Asia-Pacific assessment
anthropogenic value

A concept or construct generated by humans. While it can be argued that all principles and preferences are anthropogenic (human-generated), this does not mean they are all anthropocentric (human-centred).

Scenarios and models assessment
aphotic zone

Aphotic zone is the portion of a lake or ocean where there is little or no sunlight. It is formally defined as the depths beyond which less than 1% of sunlight penetrates.

Asia-Pacific assessment
apiculture

(see Beekeeping).

Pollination assessment
approval

Approval of the Platform's outputs signifies that the material has been subject to detailed, line-by-line discussion and agreement by consensus at a session of the Plenary.

Africa assessment, Americas assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme), Asia-Pacific assessment
aquaculture

The farming of aquatic organisms, including fish, molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants, involving interventions such as regular stocking, feeding, protection from predators, to enhance production. (In contrast, aquatic organisms which are exploitable by the public as a common property resource, are classed as fisheries, not aquaculture).

Europe and Central Asia assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment, Americas assessment
aquaculture

The farming of aquatic organisms, including fish, mollusks, crustaceans and aquatic plants, in both inland and coastal areas, and involving some form of intervention in the rearing process to enhance production, such as regular stocking, feeding, protection from predators, etc. Farming also implies individual or corporate ownership of the stock being cultivated.

Sustainable use assessment
aqueous slurries

A semi-liquid mixture, typically of fine particles of manure, cement, or coal suspended in water.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
aquifer

A body of permeable rock which can contain or transmit groundwater.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
arable

adj. Pertaining to land that can be farmed.

Pollination assessment
archetype

In the context of scenarios, an over-arching scenario that embodies common characteristics of a number of more specific scenarios.

Africa assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment, Americas assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme), Sustainable use assessment
arid ecosystem

Those in which water availability severely constrains ecological activity.

Africa assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment, Americas assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment
arid region

A region is arid when it is characterized by a severe lack of available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life. Environments subject to arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called xeric or desertic.

Asia-Pacific assessment
aridification

A chronic reduction in soil moisture caused by an increase of mean annual temperature or a decrease in yearly precipitation.

Land degradation and restoration assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment, Africa assessment
article 8(j) of the CBD

Article 8(j) states that each contracting Party of the Convention on Biological Diversity shall, as far as possible and as appropriate, subject to national legislation, respect, preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and promote their wider application with the approval and involvement of the holders of such knowledge, innovations and practices and encourage the equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of such knowledge innovations and practices.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
asia-pacific region

One of 4 regions defined in the IPBES framework and includes 62 countries or territories from five subregions, namely Oceania (American Samoa*, Australia, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands*, Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia*, Guam*, Hawai’i*, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, New Caledonia*, New Zealand, Niue*, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn Island*, Samoa, Solomon Islands, *Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna, and oceanic and sub-Antarctic islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans*), South-East Asia (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Viet Nam), North-East Asia (China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Japan, Mongolia, and Republic of Korea), South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka), Western Asia (Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Oman, Palestine (State of), Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syrian Arab Republic, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen). *Overseas territory.

Asia-Pacific assessment
assessment report

Assessment reports are published outputs of scientific, technical and socioeconomic issues that take into account different approaches, visions and knowledge systems, including global assessments of biodiversity and ecosystem services with a defined geographical scope, and thematic or methodological assessments based on the standard or the fast-track approach. They are to be composed of two or more sections including a summary for policymakers, an optional technical summary and individual chapters and their executive summaries. Assessments are the major output of IPBES, and they contain syntheses of findings on topics that have been selected by the IPBES Plenary.

Asia-Pacific assessment
assessment report

Assessment reports are published outputs of scientific, technical and socioeconomic issues that take into account different approaches, visions and knowledge systems, including global assessments of biodiversity and ecosystem services with a defined geographical scope, and thematic or methodological assessments based on the standard or the fast-track approach. They are to be composed of two or more sections including a summary for policymakers, an optional technical summary and individual chapters and their executive summaries. Assessments are the major output of IPBES, and they contain syntheses of findings on topics that have been selected by the IPBES.

Sustainable use assessment
assessment report

Assessment reports are published outputs of scientific, technical and socioeconomic issues that take into account different approaches, visions and knowledge systems, including global assessments of biodiversity and ecosystem services with a defined geographical scope, and thematic or methodological assessments based on the standard or the fast-track approach. They are composed of two or more sections including a summary for policymakers, an optional technical summary, and individual chapters and their executive summaries. Assessments are the major output of IPBES, and they contain syntheses of findings on topics that have been selected by the IPBES Plenary.

Europe and Central Asia assessment
assessment report

Published outputs of scientific, technical and socioeconomic issues that take into account different approaches, visions and knowledge systems, including global assessments of biodiversity and ecosystem services with a defined geographical scope, and thematic or methodological assessments based on the standard or the fast-track approach. They are to be composed of two or more sections including a summary for policymakers, an optional technical summary and individual chapters and their executive summaries. Assessments are the major output of IPBES, and they contain syntheses of findings on topics that have been selected by the IPBES Plenary.

Americas assessment
assessment report

Published outputs of scientific, technical and socioeconomic issues that take into account different approaches, visions and knowledge systems, including global assessments of biodiversity and ecosystem services with a defined geographical scope, and thematic or methodological assessments based on the standard or the fast-track approach. They are composed of two or more sections including a summary for policymakers, an optional technical summary and individual chapters and their executive summaries. Assessments are the major output of IPBES, and they contain syntheses of findings on topics that have been selected by the IPBES Plenary.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
assessment report

Within the context of IPBES - published assessments of scientific, technical and socio-economic issues that take into account different approaches, visions and knowledge systems, including global and regional assessments of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and thematic or methodological assessments.

Scenarios and models assessment
assisted colonization

Also known as assisted migration or managed relocation, is the act of deliberately moving plants or animals to a different habitat. The destination habitat may have either historically held the species or it may not have hosted the species, but the habitat provides the bioclimatic requirements to support it. Assisted colonization may also supplement an existing population in a site where their numbers are dwindling. This is especially the case where the assisted species are unable to disperse at a rate which keeps pace with the shifting bio-climatic, bio-physical envelope.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
asymmetry (in plant-pollinator networks (q.v.))

The tendency for plant (or pollinator) species with few links to interact with pollinator (or plant) species with many links. In mutualistic networks, such as pollination, nestedness (q.v.) is often asymmetrical with specialists of one group (plants or pollinators) linked to the generalists of the partner group (pollinators or plants).

Pollination assessment
available water capacity

Soil water content useable by plants, based on the effective root penetration depth.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
average genetic variation

The condition of having two different alleles at a gene locus.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
avoided deforestation in conjunction with afforestation and reforestation

Land-based climate change mitigation strategy based on maintaining and expanding global forest area, and thus the carbon uptake of forest ecosystems in biomass and soil.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
e-commerce

“online ordering, sale, communication and payment, in particular, business to consumer and consumer to consumer transactions but can also be applicable to business-to-business transactions”

Invasive alien species assessment
earth jurisprudence

An emerging field of law that seeks to develop a philosophy and practice of law that gives greater consideration to nature, by recognizing the interconnectedness of Earth's natural systems, the inherent rights and value of nature, and the dependence of humanity and all living beings on a healthy Earth.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
eco-certification

Programmes designed to accredit goods and services that meet defined process standards designed to improve environmental performance and, in some cases, also to improve social welfare in places of production.

Americas assessment
eco-communalism

Shorthand for ecological communalism, an environmental philosophy based on simple living, self-sufficiency, sustainability, and local economies.

Asia-Pacific assessment
eco-evolutionary dynamics

reciprocal interactions between ecological and evolutionary processes. Ecological and evolutionary time-scales can be so similar that evolutionary change might be rapid enough to influence ecological dynamics

Invasive alien species assessment
eco-informatics

A discipline which envisions building ecological data sets in the context of a data life cycle that encompasses all facets of data generation to knowledge creation, including planning, collection and organization of data, quality assurance and quality control, metadata creation, preservation, discovery, integration, and analysis and visualization.

Scenarios and models assessment
ecolabelling

Is only one type of environmental labelling, and refers specifically to the provision of information to consumers about the relative environmental quality of a product.

Africa assessment
ecocentrism

A concept that nature and natural things have a value in and of themselves, independent of any benefits they may have for human beings. See also Anthropocentrism and Reality”.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
ecolabelling

Ecolabelling is defined as a voluntary approach to environmental certification practiced around the world. Ecolabel is defined as a product that meets a wide range of environmental performance criteria or standards.

Sustainable use assessment
ecological breakpoint or threshold

The point at which a relatively small change in external conditions causes a rapid change in an ecosystem. When an ecological threshold has been passed, the ecosystem may no longer be able to return to its state by means of its inherent resilience.

Sustainable use assessment, Scenarios and models assessment, Pollination assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment, Americas assessment
ecological community

An assemblage or association of populations of two or more different species occupying the same geographical area and in a particular time.

Land degradation and restoration assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment
ecological connectivity

See 'Habitat connectivity'.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
ecological destruction

See Ecosystem degradation.

Asia-Pacific assessment
ecological disturbance (natural and anthropogenic)

An event that can disrupt any ecological level, environmental component as well as the organizational status of a biological cycle of organisms. Disturbances are an important aspect in the natural selection and the whole biological evolution, as they modify the environment in which every living being performs its vital functions.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
ecological footprint

Ecological footprint has a variety of definitions, but is defined by the Global Footprint Network the as a measure of how much area of biologically productive land and water an individual, population or activity requires to produce all the resources it consumes and to absorb the waste it generates, using prevailing technology and resource management practices. The ecological footprint indicator used in this report is based on the Global Footprint Network unless otherwise specified.[ [0[

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