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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)
non-anthropocentric value

A non- anthropocentric value is a value centered on something other than human beings. These values can be non-instrumental or instrumental to non-human ends.

Asia-Pacific assessment, Africa assessment, Americas assessment
non-anthropocentric value

A non- anthropocentric value is a value centred on something other than human beings. These values can be non-instrumental or instrumental to non-human ends.

Europe and Central Asia assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment
non-anthropocentric

A non-anthropocentric value is a value centered on something other than human beings. These values can be non-instrumental (e.g. a value ascribed to the existence of specific species for their own sake) or instrumental to non-human ends (e.g. the instrumental value a habitat has for the existence of a specific species).

Europe and Central Asia assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment
non-anthropogenic

A non-anthropocentric value is a value centred on something other than human beings. These values can be non- instrumental (e.g. a value ascribed to the existence of specific species for their own sake) or instrumental to non-human ends (e.g. the instrumental value a habitat has for the existence of a specific species).

Land degradation and restoration assessment
non-extractive practices

Non-extractive practices are defined as practices based on the observation of wild species in a way that does not involve the harvest or removal of any part of the organism. The observation can imply some interaction with the wild species, such as the activities of wildlife and whale watching or no interaction with the wild species, such as remote photography.

Sustainable use assessment
non-indigenous species

See invasive alien species.

Asia-Pacific assessment, Sustainable use assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment, Americas assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment
non-instrumental value

See values.

non-instrumental value

The value attributed to something as an end in itself, regardless of its utility for other ends.

Scenarios and models assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme), Africa assessment, Americas assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment
non-lethal harvest

Non-lethal harvest is defined as the temporary or permanent capture of live animals from their habitat without mortality, such as for the aquarium trade, pet trade or zoos, tag and release activities. Non-lethal harvest of animals also includes the parts or products of animals that do not lead to the mortality of the host, such as vicuna fiber, swift nests or wild honey.

Sustainable use assessment
non-linear

Not arranged in a straight line, not sequential or straightforward.

Asia-Pacific assessment
non-monetary valuation

The value attributable to an item or a service without relation to any acceptable cash price and for which a fixed or determinable amount of currency is absent (e.g. many ecosystem services, interpersonal good-will, health, etc.).

Pollination assessment
non-timber forest product

Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are useful substances, materials and/or commodities obtained from forests which do not require harvesting (logging) trees. They include game animals, fur-bearers, nuts, seeds, berries, mushrooms, oils, foliage, pollarding, medicinal plants, peat, mast, fuelwood, fish, spices and forage.

Asia-Pacific assessment
non-timber forest product

Any biological resources found in forests other than timber, including fuel wood and small wood, nuts, seeds, oils, foliage, game animals, berries, medicinal plants, fish, spices, barks, and mushrooms, among others (Prasad, 1993).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
non-timber resource

A multitude of natural products (excluding timber) selectively harvested from the terrestrial environment for subsistence and commercial purposes.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
normative scenarios

see target- seeking scenarios.

Scenarios and models assessment
norms

Norms are rules about what is accepted behaviour. They are supporting underlying values as defined by a society. They are therefore ‘ought to’ statements defining what one may or may not do. Examples are rules about care for nature and what is just treatment of others.

Values assessment
nox

A generic term for the nitrogen oxides most relevant for air pollution (NO and NO2) (Omidvarborna et al., 2015).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
nutrient availability

Nutrients that can be extracted by plant roots, generally from the soil (Silver, 1994).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
nutrient cycle

A repeated pathway of a particular nutrient or element from the environment through one or more organisms and back to the environment. Examples include the carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle and the phosphorus cycle.

Americas assessment
nutrient cycling

The processes by which elements are extracted from their mineral, aquatic, or atmospheric sources or recycled from their organic forms, converting them to the ionic form in which biotic uptake occurs and ultimately returning them to the atmosphere, water, or soil.

Sustainable use assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme)
validation (of models)

Typically refers to checking model outputs for consistency with observations. However, since models cannot be validated in the formal sense of the term (i.e. proven to be true), some scientists prefer to use the words benchmarking or evaluation.

Scenarios and models assessment
validation (of models)

See models.

valuation

It is the process of documenting the existence of values, identifying when and where and by whom they are expressed, that in turn allows characterizing values. Valuation of nature can inform decision-making about numerous human-nature relationships; it can support decision processes about alternative projects or policies, inform the design of policy tools and instruments, for conservation and sustainable management of nature or to improve justice. Outside the formal policy space, valuation is also undertaken by academia, the private sector, non-governmental organizations and by indigenous and local communities (IPLC). IPLC undertake valuation not only to make decisions about nature, but also to assess their relationships with nature, to plan collectively, resolve conflicts, defend their territories, and as a means for strengthening and reciprocating their connections with nature.

Values assessment
valuation approach

Valuation approaches are higher level assumptions, ideas or beliefs that underpin methods. They translate key decisions on how a method is to be applied or how the information generated by methods is to be interpreted. For each approach there are often multiple accepted methods that adhere to the basic assumptions and ideas of the given approach. Valuation approaches can also be manifested as “traditions” or widely accepted and expected protocols for undertaking valuation. Valuation traditions are heavily informed and influenced by the cultural context and/or epistemological worldviews.

Values assessment
valuation method

Are the specific techniques and accepted formal procedures that are applied to gather and analyse information from nature and society in order to and understand or make explicit the state of nature and its importance to people a) quantity, quality and status of nature including its spatial and temporal variations; b) the relevance or importance of nature to people and societies; and c) the nature of human-nature and nature-human relations in terms of how people and societies embed and live out their values of nature (as actions, principles, worldviews or philosophies).

Values assessment
value (as importance)

A value can be the importance of something for itself or for others, now or in the future, close by or at a distance. This importance can be considered in three broad classes. 1. The importance that something has subjectively, and may be based on experience. 2. The importance that something has in meeting objective needs. 3. The intrinsic value of something.

Americas assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment
value (as importance)

A value can be the importance of something for itself or for others, now or in the future, close by or at a distance. This importance can be considered in three broad classes: The importance that something has subjectively, and may be based on experience. The importance that something has in meeting objective needs. The intrinsic value of something.

Africa assessment
value (as measure)

A value can be a measure. In the biophysical sciences, any quantified measure can be seen as a value.

Americas assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment, Africa assessment
value (as preference)

A value can be the preference someone has for something or for a particular state of the world. Preference involves the act of making comparisons, either explicitly or implicitly. Preference refers to the importance attributed to one entity relative to another one.

Africa assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment, Americas assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment
value (as principle)

A value can be a principle or core belief underpinning rules and moral judgments. Values as principles vary from one culture to another and also between individuals and groups.

Africa assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment, Americas assessment
value chains (that link production systems, markets and consumers)

a contact network, which provides opportunities for the transmission of contagious diseases within and between sectors. It follows that these chains (networks) can be understood and taken into account in planning risk management strategies for disease prevention and control” especially in relation with “risky parts of the value chain”

Invasive alien species assessment
value change

Value change refers to the modification of people’s values or of the prioritization of their values in particular contexts. Value change processes occur at different social scales, from large-scale cultural shifts (e.g. intergenerational shifts due to changing demography or changes to shared values) to small-scale personal shifts (e.g. values formation and change over an individual’s lifetime). Individual, social and social-ecological experiences and interactions influence value change; examples include formal and informal education, social practices, group conformation processes, personal experiences and shocks, and social-ecological events (e.g. natural disasters, pandemics).

Values assessment
value expression

Values can be expressed explicitly through language and implicitly through actions like choices, decisions made, everyday practices or rituals. Valuation methods are used to undertake explicit valuation. Methods and approaches to integrate and bridge values, provide knowledge about nature’s values as input to decision-making.

Values assessment
value formation

'Value formation' refers to how values develop in the first place. It can occur in individual-focused processes, trough socially-oriented processes or in social-ecological processes that do not separate humans and nature.

Values assessment
value indicator

Indicators of value are quantitative and qualitative measures of the importance of nature to people. Indicators used to express the value of nature can be biophysical, economic and socio-cultural.

Values assessment
value monism

Derives from a utilitarian perspective on human-nature relationships which privileges some values of nature over others (usually monetary values).

Values assessment
value pluralism

Value pluralism is the idea that there are several values which may be equally correct and fundamental, and yet in conflict with each other. It is the opposite of value monism. More broadly speaking, value pluralism may also refer to different people having different worldviews and hence different values. In addition, these plural values may be incommensurable (i.e. they do not share a single unit of measurement, a single metric, and that there is no objective way of comparing them or weighting them against each other).

Values assessment
value system

Sets of values according to which people, societies and organizations regulate their behaviour.

Scenarios and models assessment
value system

Set of values according to which people, societies and organizations regulate their behaviour. Value systems can be identified in both individuals and social groups.

Africa assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment, Americas assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment
value-articulating institution

Methods for valuation of nature and NCPs may be termed value articulating institutions since they are based on a set of rules concerning the valuing process: Participation: who participates; in what capacity; and how. What counts as data and what form it should take (prices, weights, arguments, physical measures etc.). The kind of data handling procedures involved: how data is produced; and how data are compared, weighed or aggregated.

Values assessment
values

Value systems: Set of values according to which people, societies and organizations regulate their behavior. Value systems can be identified in both individuals and social groups (Pascual et al., 2017). Value (as principle): A value can be a principle or core belief underpinning rules and moral judgments. Values as principles vary from one culture to another and also between individuals and groups (IPBES, 2015). Value (as preference): A value can be the preference someone has for something or for a particular state of the world. Preference involves the act of making comparisons, either explicitly or implicitly. Preference refers to the importance attributed to one entity relative to another one (IPBES, 2015). Value (as importance): A value can be the importance of something for itself or for others, now or in the future, close by or at a distance. This importance can be considered in three broad classes. 1. The importance that something has subjectively, and may be based on experience. 2. The importance that something has in meeting objective needs. 3. The intrinsic Please do not cite, quote or circulate 1733 value of something (IPBES, 2015). Value (as measure): A value can be a measure. In the biophysical sciences, any quantified measure can be seen as a value (IPBES, 2015). Non-anthropocentric value: A non-anthropocentric value is a value centered on something other than human beings. These values can be non-instrumental or instrumental to non-human ends (IPBES, 2015). Intrinsic value: This concept refers to inherent value, that is the value something has independent of any human experience or evaluation. Such a value is viewed as an inherent property of the entity and not ascribed or generated by external valuing agents (Pascual et al., 2017). Anthropocentric value: The value that something has for human beings and human purposes (Pascual et al., 2017). Instrumental value: The value attributed to something as a means to achieving a particular end (Pascual et al., 2017). Non-instrumental value: The value attributed to something as an end in itself, regardless of its utility for other ends. Relational value: The values that contribute to desirable relationships, such as those among people or societies, and between people and nature, as in “Living in harmony with nature” (IPBES, 2015). Integrated valuation: The process of collecting, synthesizing, and communicating knowledge about the ways in which people ascribe importance and meaning of Nature’s contributions to people, to facilitate deliberation and agreement for decision making and planning.

Sustainable use assessment
values of nature

The values of nature encompass the different layers of the values typology, including worldviews (and underpinning knowledge systems, languages and cultures), broad values, specific values, indicators and preferences.  In addition to instrumental values, the values of nature include reciprocal values and perspectives of nature where nature and people are not seen as separate, and where intrinsic values are acknowledged on a par with values of nature’s benefits to people.

Values assessment
values of nature

When referring to values of ‘nature’, we expand on the concept proposed by Díaz et al. (2015) by recognizing that individual and group understandings of nature are socially constructed, and that different social groups have different conceptualizations of the relationship between the human and non-human world. For IPBES, nature refers loosely to the non-human living world including the scientific categories of biodiversity, ecosystem structure and functioning, evolution, the biosphere, humankind’s shared evolutionary heritage and biocultural diversity. In addition, IPBES recognises other worldviews, including those from IPLCs, in which people recognize the diverse entities and elements of nature such as rivers, mountains, plants, animal species, existing within the planet denoted by categories like Mother Earth and systems of life . Among many IPLCs, nature is often viewed as inextricably linked to humans, not as a separate entity. By recognizing this wide understanding of the concept ‘nature’, we are then able to recognize the diversity of values that emerges within these different ways of seeing the world.

Values assessment
values

see Value systems, Value (as principles), Value (as preference), Value (as importance), Value (as measure), Non-anthropocentric value, Intrinsic value, Anthropocentric value, Instrumental value, Relational value, Integrated valuation.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
values

Those actions, processes, entities or objects that are worthy or important. Values can be of the following types: Anthropocentic value, Anthropogenic value, Bequest value, Biophysical value, Economic value, Existence value, Insurance value, Intrinsic value, Instrumental value, Non-instrumental value, Option value, Relational value, Socio-cultural value.

Scenarios and models assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme)
values

Value systems: Set of values according to which people, societies and organizations regulate their behaviour. Value systems can be identified in both individuals and social groups (Pascual et al., 2017). Value (as principle): A value can be a principle or core belief underpinning rules and moral judgments. Values as principles vary from one culture to another and also between individuals and groups (IPBES/4/INF/13).Value (as preference): A value can be the preference someone has for something or for a particular state of the world. Preference involves the act of making comparisons, either explicitly or implicitly. Preference refers to the importance attributed to one entity relative to another one (IPBES/4/INF/13). Value (as importance): A value can be the importance of something for itself or for others, now or in the future, close by or at a distance. This importance can be considered in three broad classes. 1. The importance that something has subjectively, and may be based on experience. 2. The importance that something has in meeting objective needs. 3. The intrinsic value of something (IPBES/4/INF/13).Value (as measure): A value can be a measure. In the biophysical sciences, any quantified measure can be seen as a value (IPBES/4/INF/13).Non-anthropocentric value: A non-anthropocentric value is a value centered on something other than human beings. These values can be non-instrumental or instrumental to non-human ends (IPBES/4/INF/13).Intrinsic value: This concept refers to inherent value, that is the value something has independent of any human experience or evaluation. Such a value is viewed as an inherent property of the entity and not ascribed or generated by external valuing agents (Pascual et al., 2017).Anthropocentric value: The value that something has for human beings and human purposes (Pascual et al., 2017).Instrumental value: The value attributed to something as a means to achieving a particular end (Pascual et al., 2017).Non-instrumental value: The value attributed to something as an end in itself, regardless of its utility for other ends.Relational value: The values that contribute to desirable relationships, such as those among people or societies, and between people and nature, as in Living in harmony with nature (IPBES/4/INF/13).Integrated valuation: The process of collecting, synthesizing, and communicating knowledge about the ways in which people ascribe importance and meaning of NCP to humans, to facilitate deliberation and agreement for decision making and planning (Pascual et al., 2017).

values

Those actions, processes, entities or objects that are worthy or important to a particular human population (sometimes values may also refer to moral principles).

Pollination assessment
values

Values reflect life goals, beliefs and general guiding principles. They also reflect the opinions or judgements of the importance of specific things in particular situations and contexts. When considering the values of nature, values can refer to nature itself, how nature contributes to people’s quality of life, in addition to the way people express the value of life-supporting processes, functions, and systems - interrelating biophysical, spiritual, or symbolic aspects. Within the assessment we refer to broad, specific values and value indicators; as well as to instrumental, intrinsic and relational values.

Values assessment
valuing

Is the more implicit act of assigning a value to something, which, in contrast to valuation, does not necessarily follow an explicit and formal process. Thus, while we all go through the process of ‘valuing’ on a daily basis for our day-to-day decisions, valuation is most often an exercise that is undertaken by 'experts' or a specifically designed team systematically applying a specific method.

Values assessment
vector

Refers to how a species is transported, that is, the physical means or agent.

Americas assessment