Glossary definitions

In the context of IPBES, drivers of change are all the factors that, directly or indirectly, cause changes in nature, anthropogenic assets, nature's contributions to people and a good quality of life. Direct drivers of change can be both natural and anthropogenic. Direct drivers have direct physical (mechanical, chemical, noise, light etc.) and behaviour-affecting impacts on nature. They include, inter alia, climate change, pollution, different types of land use change, invasive alien species and zoonoses, and exploitation. Indirect drivers are drivers that operate diffusely by altering and influencing direct drivers, as well as other indirect drivers. They do not impact nature directly. Rather, they do it by affecting the level, direction or rate of direct drivers. Interactions between indirect and direct drivers create different chains of relationship, attribution, and impacts, which may vary according to type, intensity, duration, and distance. These relationships can also lead to different types of spill-over effects. Global indirect drivers include economic, demographic, governance, technological and cultural ones. Special attention is given, among indirect drivers, to the role of institutions (both formal and informal) and impacts of the patterns of production, supply and consumption on nature, nature's contributions to people and good quality of life.

In the context of IPBES, drivers of change are all the factors that, directly or indirectly, cause changes in nature, anthropogenic assets, nature's contributions to people and a good quality of life. Direct drivers of change can be both natural and anthropogenic. Direct drivers have direct physical (mechanical, chemical, noise, light etc.) and psychological (disturbance etc.) impacts on nature and its functioning, and on people and their interaction. Direct drivers unequivocally influence biodiversity and ecosystem processes. They are also referred to as ‘pressures'. Direct drivers include, inter alia, climate change, pollution, land use change, invasive alien species and zoonoses, including their effects across regions. Indirect drivers are drivers that operate diffusely by altering and influencing direct drivers as well as other indirect drivers (also referred to as ‘underlying causes'). Interactions between indirect and direct drivers create different chains of relationship, attribution, and impacts, which may vary according to type, intensity, duration, and distance. These relationships can also lead to different types of spill-over effects. Global indirect drivers include economic, demographic, governance, technological and cultural ones, among others. Special attention is given, among indirect drivers, to the role of institutions (both formal and informal) and impacts of the patterns of production, supply and consumption on nature, nature's contributions to people and good quality of life.

In the context of IPBES, drivers of change are all the factors that, directly or indirectly, cause changes in nature, anthropogenic assets, nature's contributions to people and a good quality of life.Direct drivers of change can be both natural and anthropogenic. Direct drivers have direct physical (mechanical, chemical, noise, light etc.) and behaviour-affecting impacts on nature. They include, inter alia, climate change, pollution, different types of land use change, invasive alien species and zoonoses, and exploitation.Indirect drivers are drivers that operate diffusely by altering and influencing direct drivers, as well as other indirect drivers. They do not impact nature directly. Rather, they do it by affecting the level, direction or rate of direct drivers.Interactions between indirect and direct drivers create different chains of relationship, attribution, and impacts, which may vary according to type, intensity, duration, and distance. These relationships can also lead to different types of spill-over effects.Global indirect drivers include economic, demographic, governance, technological and cultural ones. Special attention is given, among indirect drivers, to the role of institutions (both formal and informal) and impacts of the patterns of production, supply and consumption on nature, nature's contributions to people and good quality of life.

In the context of IPBES, drivers of change are all the factors that, directly or indirectly, cause changes in nature, anthropogenic assets, nature’s contributions to people and a good quality of life. Direct drivers of change can be both natural and anthropogenic. Direct drivers have direct physical (mechanical, chemical, noise, light etc.) and psychological (disturbance etc.) impacts on nature and its functioning, and on people and their interaction. Direct drivers unequivocally influence biodiversity and ecosystem processes. They are also referred to as ‘pressures’. Direct drivers include, inter alia, climate change, pollution, land use change, invasive alien species and zoonoses, including their effects across regions. Indirect drivers are drivers that operate diffusely by altering and influencing direct drivers as well as other indirect drivers (also referred to as ‘underlying causes’). Interactions between indirect and direct drivers create different chains of relationship, attribution, and impacts, which may vary according to type, intensity, duration, and distance. These relationships can also lead to different types of spill-over effects. Global indirect drivers include economic, demographic, governance, technological and cultural ones, among others. Special attention is given, among indirect drivers, to the role of institutions (both formal and informal) and impacts of the patterns of production, supply and consumption on nature, nature’s contributions to people and good quality of life.

Drivers, both non human-induced and anthropogenic, that affect nature directly. Direct anthropogenic drivers are those that flow from human institutions and governance systems and other indirect drivers. They include positive and negative effects, such as habitat conversion, human-caused climate change, or species introductions. Direct non human-induced drivers can directly affect anthropogenic assets and quality of life (e.g. a volcanic eruption can destroy roads and cause human deaths), but these impacts are not the main focus of IPBES. See chapter 1 and chapter 2 (Drivers) for a detailed typology of drivers.

Human actions and decisions that affect nature diffusely by altering and influencing direct drivers as well as other indirect drivers. They do not physically impact nature or its contributions to people. Indirect drivers include economic, demographic, governance, technological and cultural ones, among others. See chapter 1 and chapter 2 (Drivers) for a detailed typology of drivers.

All the external factors that cause change in nature, anthropogenic assets, nature's benefits to people and a good quality of life. They include institutions and governance systems and other indirect drivers, and direct drivers (both natural and anthropogenic).

All those external factors (i.e. generated outside the conceptual framework element in question) that affect nature, anthropogenic assets, nature's benefits to people and quality of life. Drivers of change include institutions and governance systems and other indirect drivers, and direct drivers - both natural and anthropogenic.direct drivers result from human decisions.

Drivers of change refer to all those external factors that affect nature, and, as a consequence, also affect the supply of nature's contributions to people. The IPBES conceptual framework includes drivers of change as two of its main elements: indirect drivers, which are all anthropogenic, and direct drivers, both natural and anthropogenic. See chapter 1 and chapter 2 (Drivers) for a detailed typology of drivers.

Drivers of change refer to all those external factors that affect nature, and, as a consequence, also affect the supply of Nature's contributions to people. The IPBES conceptual framework includes drivers of change as two of its main elements: indirect drivers, which are all anthropogenic, and direct drivers, both natural and anthropogenic.

For the purpose of this assessment, drivers are defined as the factors that, directly or indirectly influence the sustainability of use of wild species, by changing the abundance or distribution of species in use, altering demand on and consumption of wild species, products derived from wild species and/or changing the (nature, scale, and/or intensity of) interactions with wild species in use (practices). It is recognized that the same factor may influence different components of the system (wild species, practices, Nature’s contributions to people); and the interactions among these factors vary across time and space, which can have negative or positive effects on sustainability.

Those that are the result of human decisions and actions, namely, of institutions and governance systems and other indirect drivers (e.g. land degradation and restoration, freshwater pollution, ocean acidification, climate change produced by anthropogenic carbon emissions, species introductions). Some of these drivers, such as pollution, can have negative impacts on nature; others, as in the case of habitat restoration, can have positive effects.

Both natural and anthropogenic drivers that affect nature directly.

The ways in which societies organize themselves (and their interaction with nature), and the resulting influences on other components. They are underlying causes of change that do not make direct contact with the portion of nature in question; rather, they impact it - positively or negatively - through direct anthropogenic drivers. The institutions encompass all formal and informal interactions among stakeholders and social structures that determine how decisions are taken and implemented, how power is exercised, and how responsibilities are distributed. Various collections of institutions come together to form governance systems, that include interactions between different centres of power in society (corporate, customary-law based, governmental, judicial) at different scales from local through to global. Institutions and governance systems determine, to various degrees, the access to, and the control, allocation and distribution of components of nature and anthropogenic assets and their benefits to people .

Drivers that are not the result of human activities and whose occurrence is beyond human control (e.g. natural climate and weather patterns, extreme events such as prolonged drought or cold periods, cyclones and floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions).

Tropical and sub-tropical dry forests occur in climates that are warm year-round, and may receive several hundred centimetres or rain per year, they deal with long dry seasons which last several months and vary with geographic location.

Arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas. The term excludes hyper-arid areas, also known as deserts. Drylands are characterized by water scarcity and cover approximately 40% of the world's terrestrial surface.

Drylands comprise arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas. The term excludes hyper-arid areas, also known as deserts. Drylands are characterised by water scarcity and cover approximately 40 % of the world's terrestrial surface.

Drylands comprise arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas. The term excludes hyper-arid areas, also known as deserts. Drylands are characterised by water scarcity and cover approximately 40 per cent of the world's terrain.

Drylands comprise arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas. The term excludes hyper-arid areas, also known as deserts. Drylands are characterised by water scarcity and cover approximately 40% of the world's terrestrial surface.

Tropical and temperate areas with an aridity index (annual rainfall/annual potential evaporation) of less than 0.65.

Downscaling based on mechanistic models, which may be more appropriate than statistical downscaling in systems where the relationship between coarse scale and fine scale dynamics are complex and non-linear, or observational data are insufficient.

A model that describes changes through time of a specific process. See also process-based model.

See models.

refer to the emergent patterns of change across ‘depths’, ‘breadths’ and time that unfold as non-linear pathways. These may be characterised by ‘punctuated equilibrium’ in which more stable periods of incremental change are punctuated by bursts of change in which underlying structures are reorganised into new states.

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.

Mainstreaming means integrating actions related to conservation of biodiversity into strategies relating to production sectors.

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.

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).

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).

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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,.

Lands less suited for crop or livestock production.

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.

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.

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.

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).

Refers to situations whereby the market fails to give efficient allocation of resources, due to non-fulfilment of free and competitive market structure.

Refer to economic factors affecting the price of, demand for, and availability of a commodity.

Comparison between input and output mass of materials to solve for losses such as oxidation.

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.

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.

see process-based model.

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.

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.

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).