biotechnology |
A method for mitigating land degradation using mechanical (structures) and biological elements.
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Global assessment (1st work programme), Land degradation and restoration assessment |
biotechnology |
Any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use.
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bioterrorism |
The deliberate, private use of biological agents to harm and frighten the people of a state or society, is related to the military use of biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons.
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Land degradation and restoration assessment |
biotic facilitation |
any interaction where the action of one species has a beneficial effect on another. This includes mutualistic interactions where both the facilitated and facilitator benefit (+/+), those which are commensal (+/0) when the effects of the facilitated on the facilitator are neutral as well as those which are antagonistic (+/?) when the facilitated negatively impact the facilitator. Note that this concept partially overlaps with that of mutualism, ecological engineering and niche construction
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Invasive alien species assessment |
biotic homogenization |
See homogenization.
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Europe and Central Asia assessment |
biotic homogenization |
also referred to as the ‘anthropogenic blender’ (Olden, 2006), the loss of biotic uniqueness, where local community assemblages are becoming more similar to each other on average, and this biotic homogenization
|
Invasive alien species assessment |
biotic resistance to invasion |
the ability of species in a community to limit the recruitment or invasion of other species (Catford et al., 2009; Levine et al., 2004). It is central to our understanding of how communities at risk of invasion assemble after disturbances, but it has yet to translate into guiding principles for the restoration of invasion-resistant communities
|
Invasive alien species assessment |
black carbon |
Black carbon is a carbonaceous aerosol. It is produced both naturally and by human activities as a result of the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, biofuels, and biomass. Primary sources include emissions from diesel engines, cook stoves, wood burning and forest fires. Black carbon particles strongly absorb sunlight and give soot its black color. Thus, black carbon has emerged as a major contributor to global climate change, possibly second only to CO2 as the main driver of change.
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Asia-Pacific assessment |
blue carbon |
The carbon stored in marine and coastal ecosystems.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
bog |
An entirely rainfed wetland area that typically accumulates peat.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
Bonn challenge |
A global effort to restore 150 million hectares of the world’s degraded and deforested lands by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030. It is overseen by the Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration, with the International Union for Conservation of Nature as its Secretariat.
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Americas assessment |
bottom-up |
Systems driven by basic or lower- order processes.
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Asia-Pacific assessment |
bottom-up control of the food web |
A mode of control of trophic interactions by resources, in which organisms on each trophic level are food limited, as opposed to a top-down control (by predators), in which organisms at the top of food chains are food limited, and at successive lower levels, they are alternately predator, then food limited.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
boundary object |
Objects and/or processes plastic enough to adapt to local needs and to the constraints of the several parties employing them, yet robust enough to maintain a common identity across sites. Their meanings may differ in different social contexts, but their structure is common enough and recognizable across contexts.
|
Americas assessment |
brackish water |
Inland water with a high salt concentration.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
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.
|
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.
|
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.
|
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.
|
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).
|
Pollination assessment |
burden |
The resulting negative impacts of ecosystem use and management on people and nature, including distant, diffuse and delayed impacts.
|
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.
|
|
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.
|
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.
|
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.
|
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.
|
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.
|
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 |
habitat |
The place or type of site where an organism or population naturally occurs. Also used to mean the environmental attributes required by a particular species or its ecological niche.
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Americas assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment, Africa assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment, Sustainable use assessment |
habitat connectivity |
The degree to which the landscape facilitates the movement of organisms (animals, plant reproductive structures, pollen, pollinators, spores, etc.) and other environmentally important resources (e.g. nutrients and moisture) between similar habitats. Connectivity is hampered by fragmentation (q.v.).
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Global assessment (1st work programme), Pollination assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment, Americas assessment |
habitat degradation |
A general term describing the set of processes by which habitat quality is reduced. Habitat degradation may occur through natural processes (e.g. drought, heat, cold) and through human activities (forestry, agriculture, urbanization).
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Global assessment (1st work programme), Europe and Central Asia assessment, Africa assessment, Americas assessment, Pollination assessment, Pollination assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme) |
habitat ecosystem functions |
The ability of soil or soil materials to serve as a habitat for micro-organisms, plants, soil- living animals and their interactions.
|
Land degradation and restoration assessment |
habitat fragmentation |
A general term describing the set of processes by which habitat loss results in the division of continuous habitats into a greater number of smaller patches of lesser total and isolated from each other by a matrix of dissimilar habitats. Habitat fragmentation may occur through natural processes (e.g. forest and grassland fires, flooding) and through human activities (forestry, agriculture, urbanization).
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Sustainable use assessment, Africa assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment, Americas assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment |
habitat heterogeneity |
The number of different habitats in a landscape.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
habitat degradation |
A general term describing the set of processes by which habitat quality is reduced. Habitat degradation may occur through natural processes (e.g. drought, heat, cold) and through human activities (forestry, agriculture, urbanization).
|
Sustainable use assessment |
habitat modification |
Changes in an area's primary ecological functions and species composition due to human activity and/or non-native species invasion.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
habitat service |
The importance of ecosystems to provide living space for resident and migratory species (thus maintaining the gene pool and nursery service).
|
Europe and Central Asia assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment |
habitat specialist |
Species that require very specific habitats and resources (e.g. narrow range of food sources or cover types) to thrive and reproduce.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme) |
habitat |
The place or type of site where an organism or population naturally occurs.
|
Global assessment (1st work programme), Scenarios and models assessment |