brackish water |
Water that has more salinity than fresh water, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing of seawater with fresh water, as in estuaries, or it may occur in brackish fossil aquifers. Technically, brackish water contains between 0.5 and 30 grams of salt per litre—more often expressed as 0.5 to 30 parts per thousand (‰), which is a specific gravity of between 1.005 and 1.010. Thus, brackish covers a range of salinity regimes and is not considered a precisely defined condition.
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Asia-Pacific assessment |
breadth |
refers to change across multiple spheres, with emerging consensus that transformation requires co-evolutionary change across different spheres of society, including personal, economic, political, institutional and technological ones.
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Values assessment |
bridging organizations |
offer a means to improve environmental management outcomes by spanning the science-policy interface to allow for the effective sharing of data, information, and knowledge. Bridging organizations are institutions that use specific mechanisms such as working groups to link and facilitate interactions among individual actors in a management setting.
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Invasive alien species assessment |
broad values |
They refer to life goals, general guiding principles and orientations towards the world that are informed by people’s beliefs and worldviews. Broad values include moral principles, such as justice, belonging, freedom, but also life goals, like enjoyment, health, prosperity. Broad values influence specific values and provide them with a general context and meaning.
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Values assessment |
buen vivir |
Although no universal definition of buen vivir has been attained yet, it has four common constitutive elements: (a) the idea of harmony with nature (including its abiotic components); (b) vindication of the principles and values of marginalized/subordinated peoples; (c) the State as guarantor of the satisfaction of basic needs (such as education, health, food and water), social justice and equality; and (d) democracy. There are also two cross-cutting lines: buen vivir as a critical paradigm of Eurocentric (anthropocentric, capitalist, economistic and universalistic) modernity, and as a new intercultural political project.
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Global assessment (1st work programme), Americas assessment |
buen vivir |
An alternative to economic development-centered approaches, generally defined as forming part of the Andean indigenous cosmology, based on the belief that true wellbeing is only possible as part of a community in a broad sense, including people, nature and the Earth, linked by mutual responsibilities and obligations, and that the wellbeing of the community is above that of the individual.
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buffer (ecology) |
A natural or anthropogenic feature which separates land uses.
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Global assessment (1st work programme) |
buffer zones (protected areas) |
Areas between core protected areas and the surrounding landscape or seascape which protect the network from potentially damaging external influences and which are essentially transitional areas.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
built environment |
Comprises urban design, land use and the transportation system, and encompasses patterns of human activity within the physical environment.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
bumble bee |
Members of the bee genus Bombus; they are social insects that form colonies with a single queen, or brood parasitic or cuckoo bumblebees (previously Psithyrus). Currently 262 species are known, which are found primarily in higher latitudes and at higher altitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, although they also occur in South America and New Zealand (where they were introduced).
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Pollination assessment |
burden |
The resulting negative impacts of ecosystem use and management on people and nature, including distant, diffuse and delayed impacts.
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Sustainable use assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme) |
bureau |
The IPBES Bureau is a subsidiary body established by the Plenary which carries out the governance functions of the Platform. It is made up of representatives nominated from each of the United Nations regions, and is chaired by the Chair of IPBES.
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bureau |
Within the context of IPBES - a subsidiary body established by the Plenary which carries out the administrative functions agreed upon by the Plenary, as articulated in the document on functions, operating principles and institutional arrangements of the Platform.
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Scenarios and models assessment |
bureau |
The IPBES Bureau is a subsidiary body established by the Plenary which carries out the governance functions of IPBES. It is made up of representatives nominated from each of the United Nations regions and is chaired by the Chair of IPBES.
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Land degradation and restoration assessment |
bureau |
The IPBES Bureau is a subsidiary body established by the Plenary which carries out the governance functions of IPBES. It is made up of representatives nominated from each of the United Nations regions, and is chaired by the Chair of IPBES.
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Europe and Central Asia assessment |
bush encroachment |
An increase in density of shrubby or bushy tree vegetation in savannah or grassland systems.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
bushmeat |
Meat for human consumption derived from wild animals.
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Asia-Pacific assessment, Africa assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment, Americas assessment |
bushmeat hunting |
A form of subsistence hunting that entails the harvesting of wild animals for food and for non-food purposes, including for medicinal use.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
bushmeat hunting |
Bushmeat (or wild meat) hunting is a form of hunting that entails the harvesting of wild animals for food and for non-food purposes, including for medicinal use.
|
Sustainable use assessment, Africa assessment |
bushmeat hunting |
Bushmeat (or wild meat) hunting is a form of subsistence hunting that entails the harvesting of wild animals for food and for non-food purposes, including for medicinal use.
|
Asia-Pacific assessment |
bushmeat |
See “wild meat”.
|
Sustainable use assessment |
business-as-usual |
IPCC term case assumes that future developments follow those of the past and no changes in policies will take place.
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Asia-Pacific assessment |
bycatch |
The incidental capture of non-target species. The portion of a commercial fishing catch that consists of marine animals caught unintentionally.
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Sustainable use assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme) |
bycatch |
The commercially undesirable species caught during a fishing process.
|
Europe and Central Asia assessment, Americas assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment |
macroecology |
A subfield of ecology that deals with the study of relationships between organisms and their environment at large spatial scales, and involves characterizing and explaining statistical patterns of abundance, distribution and diversity.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
mainstreaming biodiversity |
Mainstreaming means integrating actions related to conservation of biodiversity into strategies relating to production sectors.
|
Asia-Pacific assessment |
mainstreaming biodiversity |
Mainstreaming, in the context of biodiversity, means integrating actions or policies related to biodiversity into broader development processes or policies such as those aimed at poverty reduction, or tackling climate change.
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Americas assessment, Africa assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment |
maladaptation |
A trait that is, or has become, more harmful than helpful, in contrast with an adaptation, which is more helpful than harmful (Barnett & O’Neill, 2010).
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Global assessment (1st work programme) |
malnutrition |
Malnutrition refers to deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in a person’s intake of energy and/or nutrients. The term malnutrition covers 2 broad groups of conditions. One is ‘undernutrition’—which includes stunting (low height for age), wasting (low weight for height), underweight (low weight for age) and micronutrient deficiencies or insufficiencies (a lack of important vitamins and minerals). The other is overweight, obesity and diet-related noncommunicable diseases (such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer).
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Global assessment (1st work programme), Sustainable use assessment |
managed pollinator |
A kind of pollinator that is maintained by human beings through husbandry (e.g. some honey bees, some leafcutting and orchard bees, some bumble bees). The terms can be broadened to include wild pollinators (q.v.) that flourish by human encouragement.
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Pollination assessment |
management |
for the purpose of the assessment, any action taken to address the threats, risks, distribution, abundance and impacts of an invasive alien species within a defined geographic area (Hulme, 2006; Pyšek et al., 2020). Management includes prevention, preparedness, eradication, containment, and control
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Invasive alien species assessment |
management of wild species |
The management of wild species is the management process influencing interactions among and between wild species, its habitats and humans to achieve predefined impacts valued by stakeholders. It attempts to balance the needs of wild species and the preservation of the ecosystems they inhabit with the needs of humans, using the best available sources of knowledge.
|
Sustainable use assessment |
mangrove |
Group of trees and shrubs that live in the coastal intertidal zone. Mangrove forests only grow at tropical and subtropical latitudes near the equator because they cannot withstand freezing temperatures.
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Europe and Central Asia assessment, Americas assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme), Sustainable use assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment |
marginal lands |
Land having limitations which in aggregate are severe for sustained application of a given use. On these lands, options are limited for diversification without the use of inputs; inappropriate management of lands may cause irreversible degradation.
|
Sustainable use assessment |
marginal lands |
Land having limitations which in aggregate are severe for sustained application of a given use. On these lands, options are limited for diversification without the use of inputs; inappropriate management of lands may cause irreversible degradation (CGIAR,.
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marginal lands |
Lands less suited for crop or livestock production.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
marginalization |
Marginalization refers to the set of processes through which some individuals and groups face systematic disadvantages in their interactions with dominant social, political and economic institutions. The disadvantages arise from class status, social group identity (kinship, ethnicity, caste and race), political affiliation, gender, age and disability.
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Global assessment (1st work programme) |
marginalization |
Marginalisation is a complex and multidimensional concept, which simply cannot be seen as a state of being ( a condition of low income or food insecurity) but needs to be considered a process over time with several inter-related elements interacting with social and economic conditions, political standing, and environmental health. A full understanding of the term marginalisation needs to be based on the view that the best judge of poverty and marginalisation are the people experiencing it.
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Sustainable use assessment |
marginalized community |
Marginalized communities, peoples or populations are groups and communities that experience discrimination and exclusion (social, political and economic) because of unequal power relationships across economic, political, social and cultural dimensions (National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health.
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Sustainable use assessment |
mariculture |
A branch of aquaculture involving the culture of organisms in a medium or environment which may be completely marine (sea), or sea water mixed to various degrees with fresh water, including brackishwater areas (SIVALINGAM, 1981).
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Sustainable use assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme) |
market failures |
Refers to situations whereby the market fails to give efficient allocation of resources, due to non-fulfilment of free and competitive market structure.
|
Africa assessment |
market forces |
Refer to economic factors affecting the price of, demand for, and availability of a commodity.
|
Africa assessment |
mass balance (analysis) |
Comparison between input and output mass of materials to solve for losses such as oxidation.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
maximum sustainable yield |
The maximum sustainable yield (MSY) for a given fish stock means the highest possible annual catch that can be sustained over time, by keeping the stock at the level producing maximum growth. The MSY refers to a hypothetical equilibrium state between the exploited population and the fishing activity.
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Americas assessment |
mean species abundance (species abundance) |
An indicator of naturalness or biodiversity intactness. It is defined as the mean abundance of original species relative to their abundance in undisturbed ecosystems. An MSA (Mean Species Abundance) of 0% means a completely destructed ecosystem, with no original species remaining.
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Asia-Pacific assessment |
mechanistic model |
see process-based model.
|
Scenarios and models assessment |
mechanistic modelling |
A model with hypothesized relationship between the variables in the dataset where the nature of the relationship is specified in terms of the biological processes that are thought to have given rise to the data.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
megadiverse countries |
17 countries that harbor 70% of the species diversity of the planet. Seven such countries are in the Americas. In alphabetical order: Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, USA, Venezuela.
|
Americas assessment |
megadiverse country |
Countries (17) which have been identified as the most biodiversity-rich countries of the world, with a particular focus on endemic biodiversity (UNEP-WCMC, 2014).
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
megadiverse country |
Countries (17) which have been identified as the most biodiversity- rich countries of the world, with a particular focus on endemic biodiversity.
|
Sustainable use assessment |