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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)
nagoya protocol

The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (ABS) is a supplementary agreement to the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity. It provides a transparent legal framework for the effective implementation of one of the three objectives of the CBD: the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources, thereby contributing to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. The Nagoya Protocol aims to create greater legal certainty and transparency for both providers and users of genetic resources by establishing more predictable conditions for access to genetic resources and helping to ensure benefit-sharing when genetic resources leave the country providing the genetic resources. The Nagoya Protocol on ABS was adopted on 29 October 2010 in Nagoya, Japan and entered into force on 12 October 2014.

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

adj. Pertaining to a nation state or people who define themselves as a nation. A nation can be thought of as a large number of people associated with a particular territory and who are sufficiently conscious of their unity to seek or to possess a government peculiarly its own.

Pollination assessment
national biodiversity strategies and action plans

The Convention on Biological Diversity calls on each of its Parties to prepare a National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (Article 6a) that establishes specific activities and targets for achieving the objectives of the Convention. These plans mostly are implemented by a partnership of conservation organizations. Species or habitats which are the subject of NBSAPs are the governments stated priorities for action and therefore raise greater concern where they are threatened. NBSAPs do not carry legal status and listed species and habitat types are not necessarily protected (although some are covered by other legislation) (Hesselink et al., 2007).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
national biodiversity strategies and action plans

The Convention on Biological Diversity calls on each of its Parties to prepare a National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (Article 6a) that establishes specific activities and targets for achieving the objectives of the Convention. These plans mostly are implemented by a partnership of conservation organizations. Species or habitats which are the subject of NBSAPs are the governments stated priorities for action and therefore raise greater concern where they are threatened. NBSAPs do not carry legal status and listed species and habitat types are not necessarily protected (although some are covered by other legislation).

Sustainable use assessment
native forest

Forests that are made up of native tree species, and are either primary (have never been clear-cut) or secondary (regenerating naturally).

Land degradation and restoration assessment
native pollinator

A pollinator species living in an area where it evolved, or dispersed without human intervention. the study of first principles or the essence of things.

Pollination assessment
native species

Indigenous species of animals or plants that naturally occur in a given region or ecosystem.

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

taxa that have originated in a given area (their natural range) without human involvement, or that have arrived there without intentional or unintentional intervention of humans, from an area in which they are native (IPBES glossary). This definition excludes products of hybridization involving alien taxa since “human involvement”, in this case, includes the introduction of an alien parent

Invasive alien species assessment
natural area

Regions that have not been significantly altered by humankind.

Sustainable use assessment
natural capital

A concept referring to the stock of renewable and non-renewable natural resources ( plants, animals, air, water, soils, minerals) that combine to yield a flow of benefits to people (UNDP, 2016b). Within the IPBES conceptual framework, it is part of the nature category, representing an economic-utilitarian perspective on nature, specifically those aspects of nature that people use (or anticipate to use) as source of Nature's contributions to people.

Sustainable use assessment
natural capital accounts

Sets of linked accounts that contain information about the type and quantities and, where possible, the value of the stocks of natural assets and the flows of services generated by them. The accounts contain two main components: physical accounts - types, quantities and condition of assets; and monetary accounts - application of monetary units of valuation to selected flows of services on an annual basis and associated values of stocks.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
natural capital

A concept referring to the stock of renewable and non-renewable natural resources (e.g. plants, animals, air, water, soils, minerals) that combine to yield a flow of benefits to people (UNDP, 2016b). Within the IPBES conceptual framework, it is part of t.

natural capital

An economic metaphor for the limited stocks of physical and biological resources found on Earth.

Europe and Central Asia assessment
natural capital

The world's stocks of natural assets which include geology, soil, air, water and all living things.

Asia-Pacific assessment
natural capital

The world's stocks of natural assets which include geology, soil, air, water and all living things. It is from this natural capital that humans derive a wide range of services, often called ecosystem services, which make human life possible.

Land degradation and restoration assessment