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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)
grazing land management

The strategies used by people to promote both high quality and quantity of forage for domesticated livestock.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
great acceleration

Great Acceleration refers to the acceleration of human-induced changes of the second half of the 20th century, unique in the history of human existence. Many human activities reached take-off points and sharply accelerated towards the end of the century.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
green bonds

A mode of private financing that tap the debt capital market through fixed income instruments (i.e. bonds) to raise capital to finance climate-friendly projects in key sectors of, but not limited to, transport, energy, building and industry, water, agriculture and forestry and waste.

Global assessment (1st work programme), Sustainable use assessment
green growth

Green growth means fostering economic growth and development while ensuring that natural assets continue to provide the resources and environmental services on which our well-being relies.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
green hunting

Green hunting occurs with tranquilizer dart guns and the animals are released alive. This is typically performed for veterinary procedures or translocation, and has been suggested as an alternative to lethal forms of hunting.

Sustainable use assessment
green infrastructure

Green infrastructure refers to the natural or semi-natural systems (e.g. riparian vegetation) that provide services for water resources management with equivalent or similar benefits to conventional (built) “grey” infrastructure (e.g. water treatment plants).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
green public procurement

A process whereby public authorities seek to procure goods, services and works with a reduced environmental impact throughout their life-cycle when compared to goods, services and works with the same primary function that would otherwise be procured.

Asia-Pacific assessment
green revolution

Period of food crop productivity growth that started in the 1960s due to a combination of high rates of investment in crop research, infrastructure, and market development and appropriate policy support, and whose environmental impacts have been mixed: on one side saving land conversion to agriculture, on the other side promoting an overuse of inputs and cultivation on areas otherwise improper to high levels of intensification, such as slopes.

Sustainable use assessment
green revolution

A set of research and the development of technology transfer initiatives occurring between the 1930s and the late 1960s (with prequels in the work of the agrarian geneticist Nazareno Strampelli in the 1920s and 1930s), that increased agricultural production worldwide, particularly in the developing world, beginning most markedly in the late 1960s. The initiatives resulted in the adoption of new technologies, including: new, high- yielding varieties (HYVs) of cereals, especially dwarf wheats and rices, in association with chemical fertilizers and agro-chemicals, and with controlled water-supply (usually involving irrigation) and new methods of cultivation, including mechanization. All of these together were seen as a package of practices to supersede traditional technology and to be adopted as a whole.

Land degradation and restoration assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme)
green revolution

Period of food crop productivity growth that started in the 1960s due to a combination of high rates of investment in crop research, infrastructure, and market development and appropriate policy support, and whose environmental impacts have been mixed: on.

green water

Water transpired through plants to the atmosphere.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
greenhouse gas

Those gaseous constituents of the atmosphere, both natural and anthropogenic, that absorb and emit radiation at specific wavelengths within the spectrum of infrared radiation emitted by the Earth’s surface, the atmosphere, and clouds. This property causes the greenhouse effect.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
greenhouse gas

Greenhouse gases are those gaseous constituents of the atmosphere, both natural and anthropogenic, that absorb and emit radiation at specific wavelengths within the spectrum of terrestrial radiation emitted by the Earth’s surface, the atmosphere itself, and by clouds. This property causes the greenhouse effect. Water vapour (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), methane (CH4) and ozone (O3) are the primary greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. Moreover, there are a number of entirely human-made greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, such as the halocarbons and other chlorine- and brominecontaining substances, dealt with under the Montreal Protocol. Beside CO2, N2O and CH4, the Kyoto Protocol deals with the greenhouse gases sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and perfluorocarbons (PFCs).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
greenhouse gas

Greenhouse gases are those gaseous constituents of the atmosphere, both natural and anthropogenic, that absorb and emit radiation at specific wavelengths within the spectrum of terrestrial radiation emitted by the Earth’s surface, the atmosphere itself, and by clouds. This property causes the greenhouse effect. Water vapour (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), methane (CH4) and ozone (O3) are the primary greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. Moreover, there are a number of entirely human-made greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, such as the halocarbons and other chlorine- and bromine containing substances, dealt with under the Montreal Protocol. Beside CO2, N2O and CH4, the Kyoto Protocol deals with the greenhouse gases sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and perfluorocarbons (PFCs).

Sustainable use assessment
grey water

Any wastewater that is not contaminated with faecal matter.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
gross primary production

Total terrestrial Gross Primary Production (GPP) is the total mass of carbon taken out of the atmosphere by plant photosynthesis.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
gross primary productivity

The amount of carbon fixed by the autotrophs (e.g. plants and algaes).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
kelp

A large brown seaweed that typically has a long, tough stalk with a broad frond divided into strip.

Asia-Pacific assessment
key biodiversity area

Sites contributing significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity. They represent the most important sites for biodiversity worldwide, and are identified nationally using globally standardised criteria and thresholds.

Americas assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment, Africa assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme), Asia-Pacific assessment
key biodiversity area

Sites contributing significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity. They represent the most important sites for biodiversity conservation worldwide, and are identified nationally using globally standardized criteria and thresholds.

key players

People and organizations who both can influence and become affected by decisions - that is, in certain contexts, they serve as influencers, while at the same time are involved in actual decision making.

Values assessment
keystone species

A species whose impact on the community or ecosystem is disproportionately large relative to its abundance. Effects can be produced by consumption (trophic interactions), competition, mutualism, dispersal, pollination, disease, or habitat modification (non-trophic interactions).

Sustainable use assessment
keystone species

A species whose impact on the community or ecosystem is disproportionately large relative to its abundance. Effects can be produced by consumption (trophic interactions), competition, mutualism, dispersal, pollination, disease, or habitat modification (no.

keystone species

Species that maintain the organization and diversity of their ecological communities and are thus exceptional, relative to the rest of the community, in their importance. Species that, despite low biomass, exert strong effects on the structure of the communities they inhabit.

Asia-Pacific assessment
kinship-centric principle (non-humans)

animals, plants and spirits, and such approach forms part of an indigenous cultural identity. Maintaining reciprocal and healthy relationships through a continuum with animals, plants and the lands where they reside involve the giving and taking of resources in appropriate ways, at appropriate times. In some cases, animals and plants are seen and treated as equals to humans and shape and reshape human relations with nature. Often, the values embedded in these relationships drive human behaviour and are elicited through certain valuation methods. Appreciation (no disregard) for spiritual entities (e.g. sacred mountains, rivers, among others) residing on ancestral lands, can be an example of a Kinship-central approach (focused on non-humans).

Values assessment
kinship-centric principle (other humans)

Actions of mutual support between humans such as sharing, gender equity, social equity, honesty, humility, modesty. Some of these elements can be revealed as relevant through valuation methods and approaches, as well as by practices associated with them.

Values assessment
knowledge system

Indigenous and local knowledge systems are understood to be dynamic bodies of integrated, holistic, social and ecological understandings, know-hows, practices and beliefs pertaining to the relationship of living beings, including people, with one another and with their environment. Indigenous and local knowledge is grounded in territory, is highly diverse and is continuously evolving through the interaction of experiences, skills, innovations and different types of wisdom expressed in multiple ways (written, oral, visual, tacit, practical and scientific). Such knowledge can provide information, methods, theory and practice for sustainable ecosystem management. Indigenous and local knowledge systems have been, and continue to be, empirically tested, applied, contested and validated through different means in different contexts. Western Academic knowledge systems relate to often explicit knowledge that has been derived from applying formal methods in academic or technical institutions.

Values assessment
knowledge system

A body of propositions that are adhered to, whether formally or informally, and are routinely used to claim truth.

Scenarios and models assessment
knowledge system

A body of propositions that are adhered to, whether formally or informally, and are routinely used to claim truth. They are organized structures and dynamic processes (a) generating and representing content, components, classes, or types of knowledge, that are (b) domain-specific or characterized by domain-relevant features as defined by the user or consumer, (c) reinforced by a set of logical relationships that connect the content of knowledge to its value (utility), (d) enhanced by a set of iterative processes that enable the evolution, revision, adaptation, and advances, and (e) subject to criteria of relevance, reliability, and quality.

Europe and Central Asia assessment, Americas assessment, Sustainable use assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment
knowledge system

Organized structures and dynamic processes (a) generating and representing content, components, classes, or types of knowledge, that are (b) domain-specific or characterized by domain-relevant features as defined by the user or consumer, (c) reinforced by a set of logical relationships that connect the content of knowledge to its value (utility), (d) enhanced by a set of iterative processes that enable the evolution, revision, adaptation, and advances, and (e) subject to criteria of relevance, reliability, and quality.

Pollination assessment
knowledge system

A body of propositions that are adhered to, whether formally or informally, and are routinely used to claim truth. They are organised structures and dynamic processes: generating and representing content, components, classes, or types of knowledge, that are, domain-specific or characterised by domain-relevant features as defined by the user or consumer,, reinforced by a set of logical relationships that connect the content of knowledge to its value (utility),, enhanced by a set of iterative processes that enable the evolution, revision, adaptation, and advances, and,, subject to criteria of relevance, reliability, and quality.

Africa assessment
kyoto protocol

An international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which commits its Parties by setting internationally binding emission reduction targets.

Asia-Pacific assessment
paired catchment

Paired catchment studies have been widely used to assess the likely impact of land use change on water yield around the world. Such studies involve the use of two catchments (drainage basins) with similar characteristics in terms of slope, aspect, soils, area, precipitation and vegetation located adjacent to each other. Following a calibration period, where both catchments are monitored, one of the catchments is subjected to treatment and the other remains as a control. This allows the climatic variability to be accounted for in the analysis. The change in water yield can then be attributed to changes in vegetation. The paired catchment studies reported in the literature can be divided into four broad categories: (i) afforestation experiments; (ii) regrowth experiments; (iii) deforestation experiments; and (iv) forest conversion experiments.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
paleological data

Information on environment event and trends (e.g. paleoclimate).

Land degradation and restoration assessment
palma ratio

The share of all income received by the 10% people with highest disposable income divided by the share of all income received by the 40% people with the lowest disposable income (OECD, 2018b).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
parasite

An organism that lives on or within another organism of a different species (the host) from which it obtains nourishment and to which it causes harm.

Pollination assessment
paris agreement

Agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) dealing with greenhouse gas emissions mitigation, adaptation and finance starting in the year 2020.

Asia-Pacific assessment
participatory governance

A variant or subset of governance which puts emphasis on democratic engagement, in particular through deliberative practices.

Americas assessment, Sustainable use assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment
participatory mapping

A key method that many indigenous communities apply in order to collect data, information and monitoring and to use it in science- policy- society interface processes.

Europe and Central Asia assessment
participatory method

Participatory research methods are a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods geared towards planning and conducting the research process with those people whose life-world and meaningful actions are under study (Bergold & Thomas, 2012). Participatory methods acknowledge the possibility, the significance, and the usefulness of involving research partners in the knowledge-production process (Bergold, 2007).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
participatory method

Participatory research methods are a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods geared towards planning and conducting the research process with those people whose life-world and meaningful actions are under study (Bergold & Thomas, 2012). Participatory methods acknowledge the possibility, the significance, and the usefulness of involving research partners in the knowledge- production process.

Sustainable use assessment
participatory process

Specific methods employed to achieve active participation by all members of a group in a decision-making process (Chatty et al., 2003).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
participatory process

Specific methods employed to achieve active participation by all members of a group in a decision-making process.

Sustainable use assessment
participatory scenario development (and planning)

Approaches characterised by more interactive, and inclusive, involvement of stakeholders in the formulation and evaluation of scenarios. Aimed at improving the transparency and relevance of decision-making, by incorporating demands and information of each stakeholder, and negotiating outcomes between stakeholders.

Asia-Pacific assessment
participatory scenario development (and planning)

Approaches characterized by more interactive, and inclusive, involvement of stakeholders in the formulation and evaluation of scenarios. Aimed at improving the transparency and relevance of decision-making, by incorporating demands and information of each stakeholder, and negotiating outcomes between stakeholders.

Land degradation and restoration assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment
participatory scenario development (and planning)

Approaches characterised by more interactive, and inclusive, involvement of stakeholders in the formulation and evaluation of scenarios. Aimed at improving the transparency and relevance of decision making, by incorporating demands and information of each stakeholder, and negotiating outcomes between stakeholders.

Americas assessment, Scenarios and models assessment
particulate and gaseous pollutant

Air pollutants such as ozone, nitrogen oxides and ammonia.

Europe and Central Asia assessment
particulate matter

A mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets (dust, dirt, soot, or smoke) (US Environmental Protection Agency, 2018b).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
particulate matter

A mixture of solid particles (dust, dirt, soot, or smoke) and liquid droplets.

Europe and Central Asia assessment
particulate matter

Particulate matter (PM), also known as atmospheric particulate matter, or suspended particulate matter (SPM) are microscopic solid or liquid matter suspended in Earth's atmosphere. Sources of particulate matter can be natural or anthropogenic. They have impacts on climate and precipitation that adversely affect human health.

Asia-Pacific assessment