Organic compounds that are resistant to environmental degradation through chemical, biological, and photolytic processes. Because of their persistence, persistent organic pollutants bioaccumulate with potential adverse impacts on human health and the environment.
The porosity of soils to allow water to pass through it.
Perennially frozen ground that occurs wherever the temperature remains below 0°C for several years. Ground (soil or rock and included ice and organic material) that remains at or below 0°C for at least two consecutive years.
See Conservation agriculture.
The first stage of the human cognitive process. Perceptions are not neutral as they pass through rational and emotional filters which assess and interpret the relevancy of what people see. These filters are conditioned by individual experience, education, and by collective worldviews. See also Reality; Concepts”; Worldviews”.
A collaboration initiated in 1992 between the World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), UNESCO-MAB and the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew on the promotion of ethnobotany and the equitable and sustainable use of plant resources.
A part of the Earth’s surface that contains the soil layer.
Payments for ecosystem services (PES) is a term used to describe a process whereas a beneficiary or user of an ecosystem service makes a direct or indirect payment to a provider of that service. PES involve a series of payments to land or other natural resource owners in return for a guaranteed flow of ecosystem services or certain actions likely to enhance their provision over-¬and-above what would otherwise be provided in the absence of payment.
A payment mechanism that involves a series of payments to land or other natural resource owners in return for a guaranteed flow of ecosystem services or certain actions likely to enhance their provision over-and-above what would otherwise be provided in the absence of payment.
Voluntary transactions that generate offsite services and are established to enable service users to pay resource providers for the conditional provision of the desired ecosystem service.