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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)
cryptogenic species

a species, which cannot be reliably demonstrated as being either alien or native

Invasive alien species assessment
cultural ecosystem services

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (Sarukhán & Whyte, 2005) defined cultural ecosystem services as the nonmaterial benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experiences. Cultural ecosystem services have been included in many other typologies of ecosystem services and referred to variously as cultural services (Constanza, 1997), life-fulfilling functions (Daily, 1999), information functions (de Groot et al., 2002), amenities and fulfilment (Boyd & Banzhaf, 2007), cultural and amenity services (de Groot et al., 2010, Kumar 2010), or socio-cultural fulfilment (Wallace, 2007).

Land degradation and restoration assessment
cultural change

Cultural change is a continuous process in any society, which can vary from gradual to stochastic, resulting from interactions between processes that are internal (ex. needs, local changes, crisis, mobility, ideas, invention and innovation, conflicts, etc.) and external (ex. diffusion, external agents, political and economic forces, conflicts, etc.) (Berry, 2008; Redfield et al., 1936). Cultural change is interpreted differently depending on theoretical orientation, such as diffusionism, modernization theory, world system theory, neocolonialism, globalization, among others (see Peña, 2005; Rudmin, 2009; Santos-Granero, 2009). Culture change can be selective or systemic and most often involves resistance and conflicts but can also lead to adaptation and resilience in changing contexts and environments.

Global assessment (1st work programme), Sustainable use assessment
cultural continuity

Cultural continuity has been conceptualized within Indigenous health research that builds on cultural connectedness to emphasize the importance of intergenerational cultural connectedness, which is maintained through intact families and the engagement of elders, who pass traditions to subsequent generations. Cultural continuity also situates culture as being dynamic through the maintenance of collective memory, which may change over time.

Sustainable use assessment
cultural diversity

As stated in the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, Culture takes diverse forms across time and space. This diversity is embodied in the uniqueness and plurality of the identities of the groups and societies making up humankind. As a source of exchange, innovation and creativity, cultural diversity is as necessary for humankind as biodiversity is for nature. In this sense, it is the common heritage of humanity and should be recognized and affirmed for the benefit of present and future generations..Cultural diversity widens the range of options open to everyone; it is one of the roots of development, understood not simply in terms of economic growth, but also as a means to achieve a more satisfactory intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual existence.

Sustainable use assessment
cultural ecosystem services

A category of ecosystem services first developed in the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) to refer to the nonmaterial benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experience, including, knowledge systems, social relations, and aesthetic values. In this assessment, cultural ecosystem services are included as part of both material and non-material Nature’s contributions to people.

Sustainable use assessment
cultural ecosystem services

A category of ecosystem services first developed in the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) to refer to the nonmaterial benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experience, including, e.g. knowledge systems, social relations, and aesthetic values (Millenium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). In the Global Assessment, cultural ecosystem services are included as part of both material and non-material nature’s contributions to people.

cultural ecosystem services

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment defined cultural ecosystem services as the nonmaterial benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experiences. Cultural ecosystem services have been included in many other typologies of ecosystem services and referred to variously as cultural services, life-fulfilling functions, information functions, amenities and fulfillment, cultural and amenity services, or socio-cultural fulfillment.

Asia-Pacific assessment
cultural identity

Cultural identity is the identity or feeling of belonging to, as part of the self-conception and self-perception to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality and any kind of social group that have its own distinct culture. In this way that cultural identity is both characteristic of the individual but also to the culturally identical group that has its members sharing the same cultural identity.

Sustainable use assessment
cultural keystone species

The culturally salient species that shape in a major way the cultural identity of a people, as reflected in the fundamental roles these species have in diet, materials, medicine, and/or spiritual practices.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
cultural keystone species

Culturally keystone species designate species whose existence and symbolic value shape in a major way and over time, the cultural identity of a people, as reflected in the fundamental roles these species have in diet, materials, medicine, and/or spiritual practices.

Sustainable use assessment
cultural landscape

Cultural landscapes express the long-term co-evolution and relationships between people and nature, influenced by internal and external forces affecting the aesthetic and productive configuration of land management, water bodies, wildlife, property systems, infrastructure and human settlements, and which are both a source and a product of changing social, institutional, economic, and cultural systems.

Global assessment (1st work programme), Sustainable use assessment
cultural values

Cultural values are shared social values and norms, which are learned and dynamic, and which underpin attitudes and behavior and how people respond to events and opportunities, and affects the hierarchy of values people assign to objects, knowledge, stories, feelings, other beings, forms of social expressions, and behaviors.

Global assessment (1st work programme), Sustainable use assessment
culture

A commonly accepted definition of culture refers to the system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviours, and artifacts that the members of society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
culture

Culture is defined as a key determinant of, for example, what is defined as suitable food and preferred approaches to supporting human health.

Sustainable use assessment
cumulative impacts

An impact produced over a period of time.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
customary land tenure

The socially-embedded systems and institutions used within communities to regulate and manage land use and access, and which derive from the community itself rather than from the state.

Sustainable use assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme)
customary law

Law consisting of customs that are accepted as legal requirements or obligatory rules of conduct; practices and beliefs that are so vital and intrinsic a part of a social and economic system that they are treated as if they were laws.

Sustainable use assessment
customary law

Customary law forms part of forms part of international and domestic law and stems from the customary norms of a particular group of peoples.

Asia-Pacific assessment
customary law

Law based on tradition in communities where the authority of traditional leadership is recognised. It exists where there is a commonly repeated practice which is accepted as law by the members of a community.

Global assessment (1st work programme), Land degradation and restoration assessment
customary law

Law consisting of commonly repeated customs, practices and beliefs that are accepted as legal requirements or obligatory rules of conduct.

Europe and Central Asia assessment
customary practices

See Customary law.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
customary rights

Rights, such as land rights or political rights, that are granted by either customary or statutory law. Customary rights exist where there is a consensus of relevant actors considering them to be ‘law’.

Global assessment (1st work programme), Sustainable use assessment
customary sustainable use

Uses of biological resources in accordance with traditional cultural practices that are compatible with conservation or sustainable use requirements.

Sustainable use assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme)
radiative forcing

The measurement of the capacity of a gas or other forcing agents to affect that energy balance, thereby contributing to climate change. Put more simply, RF expresses the change in energy in the atmosphere due to GHG emissions.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
ramsar convention on wetlands

The Convention on Wetlands, called the Ramsar Convention, is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.

Asia-Pacific assessment
ramsar convention on wetlands

The Convention on Wetlands, called the Ramsar Convention, of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat, is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.

Sustainable use assessment
ramsar site

A wetland site designated of international importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat under the Ramsar Convention, an intergovernmental environment treaty established in 1975 by UNESCO, coming into force in 1975. A wetland of international significance in terms of ecology, botany, zoology, limnology or hydrology. Such site meets at least one of the criteria of Identifying Wetlands of International Importance set by Ramsar Convention and is designated by appropriate national authority to be added to Ramsar list.

Asia-Pacific assessment
ramsar site

A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated of international importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat under the Ramsar Convention, an intergovernmental environment treaty established in 1975 by UNESCO, coming into force in 1975. Ramsar site refers to wetland of international significance in terms of ecology, botany, zoology, limnology or hydrology. Such a site meets at least one of the criteria of identifying Wetlands of International Importance set by Ramsar Convention and is designated by appropriate national authority to be added to Ramsar list.

Europe and Central Asia assessment, Americas assessment
ramsar site

A wetland site designated of international importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat under the Ramsar Convention, an intergovernmental environment treaty established in 1975 by UNESCO, coming into force in 1975. Ramsar site refers to wetland of international significance in terms of ecology, botany, zoology, limnology or hydrology. Such a site meets at least one of the criteria of identifying wetlands of international importance set by Ramsar Convention and is designated by appropriate national authority to be added to Ramsar list.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
ramsar site

A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated of international importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat under the Ramsar Convention, an intergovernmental environment treaty established in 1975 by UNESCO, coming into force in 1975. Ramsar site refers to a wetland of international significance in terms of ecology, botany, zoology, limnology or hydrology. Such site meets at least one of the criteria of Identifying Wetlands of International Importance set by Ramsar Convention and is designated by appropriate national authority to be added to Ramsar list.

Africa assessment
range

“the current limits of distribution of a species, accounting for all known, inferred or projected sites of occurrence”

Invasive alien species assessment
range shift

A change in the distributional limits of the native geographical range of a species, most commonly driven human-related factors (e.g. climate change).

Pollination assessment
rangeland

Natural grasslands used for livestock grazing.

Land degradation and restoration assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment, Sustainable use assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme), Americas assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment
re-wilding

The preservation of land with the goal of restoring natural ecosystem processes and reducing human control of landscapes (Gillson et al., 2011) to allow declining populations to rebound.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
reactive nitrogen

All biologically, photochemically, and/or radiatively active forms of nitrogen; a diverse pool of nitrogenous compounds that includes organic compounds (e.g. urea, amines, proteins, amides), mineral nitrogen forms, such as nitrates and ammonium, as well as gases that are chemically active in the troposphere (NOx, ammonia, nitrous oxide) and contribute to air pollution and the greenhouse effect.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
reality

Current state of biodiversity and ecosystem functions independent of human knowledge and perceptions and ecosystem services (Nature in IPBES conceptual framework). See also Perceptions; Concepts”; Worldviews”.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
rebound effect

The pattern by which resource users tend to compensate for improved efficiency by shifting behaviour towards greater consumption, which undermines apparent gains. For example, an increased fuel saving of motor vehicle tends to be compensated by spending more money on other resources or by driving more.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
rebound effect

The pattern by which resource users tend to compensate for improved efficiency by shifting behavior towards greater consumption, which undermines apparent gains. For example, an increased fuel saving of motor vehicle tends to be compensated by spending more money on other resources or by driving more.

Sustainable use assessment
reclamation

The stabilization of the terrain, assurance of public safety, aesthetic improvement, and usually a return of the land to what, within the regional context, is considered to be a useful purpose.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
recognition

In social-environmental justice, recognition is about the respect for (community) ways of life, local knowledge, and cultural difference.

Values assessment
recreational uses (of wild species)

Recreational uses are defined as uses of wild species in which enjoyment is considered a primary value.

Sustainable use assessment
recreational values

Monetary or non-monetary worth given to the human recreational use of ecosystems, areas or other natural phenomena.

Asia-Pacific assessment
recruitment

The influx of new members into a population by reproduction or immigration (IUCN, 2012a).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
recruitment

The influx of new members into a population by reproduction or immigration.

Sustainable use assessment
reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation

A global mechanism designed to offer positive incentives to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and to promote the conservation, management and enhancement of forest stocks in developing countries (http://theredddesk. org/encyclopaedia/reducing-emissions- deforestation-and-forest-degradation-redd- and-role-conservation). REDD-plus stands for countries’ efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and foster conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.

Asia-Pacific assessment
reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation

Mechanism developed by Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which creates a financial value for the carbon stored in forests by offering incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions from forested lands.

reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) is a mechanism developed by Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It creates a financial value for the carbon stored in forests by offering incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions from forested lands and invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development. Developing countries would receive results-based payments for results- based actions. REDD+ goes beyond simply deforestation and forest degradation, and includes the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.

Europe and Central Asia assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment
reduced impact logging

The intensively planned and carefully controlled implementation of timber harvesting operations to minimize the environmental impact on forest stands and soils (FAO, 2018a).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
reduced impact logging

The intensively planned and carefully controlled implementation of timber harvesting operations to minimize the environmental impact on forest stands and soils.

Sustainable use assessment