Glossary definitions

The amount of value an item or a service has in relation to its acceptable cash price for a willing seller and buyer.

Monitoring is the repeated observation of a system in order to detect signs of change.

The repeated observation of a system in order to detect signs of change.

for the purpose of this assessment, the continued or regular observation of an ecosystem to detect invasion/reinvasion by invasive alien species and/or their impacts.

The cultivation or growth of only one agricultural product in a given area (field, farm, garden, forest).

The agricultural practice of producing or growing a single crop, plant, or livestock species, variety, or breed in a field or farming system at a time.

The condition in which a group of taxa share a common ancestry, being the entire set of evolutionary descendants from a common ancestor.

A moral economy, initially based on peasants’ sense of belonging and sharing, is an economy that is based on goodness, fairness, and justice. Such an economy is generally only stable in small, closely knit communities, where the principles of mutuality operate.

A pattern of landscapes with multiple patches and corridors.

Landscape scale restoration efforts that do not rely on a single restoration mechanism for an entire landscape, or it is a single mechanism, deploying it in a spatially variable manner that creates patches of restored and non-restored landscape units.

An expression used in a number of countries and regions to refer to the planet Earth and the entity that sustains all living things found in nature with which humans have an indivisible, interdependent physical and spiritual relationship.

An expression used in a number of countries and regions to refer to the planet Earth and the entity that sustains all living things found in nature with which humans have an indivisible, interdependent physical and spiritual relationship (see nature).

One’s general willingness to do something. It is the set of psychological forces that compel you to take action. Motivation can be extrinsic - based on changes in external conditions, external rewards. Intrinsic motivation refers to an inherent drive to seek out challenges and new possibilities.

Providing extrinsic incentives for certain kinds of behaviour - such as promising monetary rewards for accomplishing more of intrinsically/ normatively motivated action - can undermine that motivation for performing the behaviour, diminished motivation to act.

See Participatory scenario development.

A sub-discipline of operations research that explicitly evaluates multiple conflicting criteria in decision-making.

The IPBES Multidiscplinary Expert Panel is a subsidiary body established by the IPBES Plenary which oversees the scientific and technical functions ofthe Platform, a key role being to select experts to carry out assessments.

Within the context of IPBES - a subsidiary body established by the IPBES Plenary which carries out the scientific and technical functions agreed upon by the Plenary, as articulated in the document on functions, operating principles and institutional arrangements of IPBES.

where ‘scape is shorthand for ‘land-, freshwater- and sea-scape’, is a contiguous area defined by major geomorphological (e.g. major watersheds, geological systems and major biomes) and/or oceanographic processes (major current regimes, biogeochemical processes). Scale may vary with the application. A ‘scape may include a mosaic of habitats across all conditions of nature from intact in ‘wild spaces’, through modified and altered in ‘shared spaces’ where humans have a significant impact on the biota and may alter function considerably, to ‘anthromes’ or fully transformed agricultural and urban areas where the coverage of natural habitats is very low or even zero.

The concept was adopted by FAO (1999) to foster an approach integrating landscape, biological connections, and less damageable practices. Multifunctional agriculture is meant to integrate the economic, social and ecological aspects of land management.

The condition of being multifunctional; diversity of function.

Multi-use systems are defined as socio-ecosystems in which occur more than one use or practice (e.g. fishing and logging in mangroves).

Interaction between two species that benefits the two species (Bronstein, 1994).

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.

See models.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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”

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 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.

'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.

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.

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

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).

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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