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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)
exploitation

The consumptive use of any natural resources.

Sustainable use assessment
exploratory scenario

See scenario.

exploratory scenario

Scenarios that examine a range of plausible futures, based on potential trajectories of drivers - either indirect (e.g. socio-political, economic and technological factors) or direct (e.g. habitat conversion, climate change).

Scenarios and models assessment
exploratory scenario

Scenarios that examine a range of plausible futures, based on potential trajectories of drivers - either indirect (e.g. socio-political, economic and technological factors) or direct (e.g. habitat conversion, climate change).

Sustainable use assessment
exposure

The state of having no protection from something potential harmful.

Asia-Pacific assessment
extensive forest management

Low or no input in regeneration or site amelioration is practiced in sparsely populated regions with large forest areas, such as boreal forests (Taiga) of Canada and Siberia, and across much of the world´s major tropical forest biomes.

extensive grazing

Extensive grazing is that in which livestock are raised on food that comes mainly from natural grasslands, shrublands, woodlands, wetlands, and deserts. It differs from intensive grazing, where the animal feed comes mainly from artificial, seeded pastures.

Asia-Pacific assessment, Americas assessment
extensive grazing (lands)

A form of grazing in which livestock are raised on food that comes mainly from natural grasslands, shrublands, woodlands, wetlands and deserts. It differs from intensive grazing, where the animal feed comes mainly from artificial, seeded pastures.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
extent (spatial or temporal)

see spatial scale and temporal scale”.

Scenarios and models assessment
externality

A positive or negative consequence (benefits or costs) of an action that affects someone other than the agent undertaking that action and for which the agent is neither compensated nor penalized through the markets.

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

an economic concept of uncompensated environmental effects of production and consumption that affect consumer utility and enterprise cost outside the market mechanism

Invasive alien species assessment
extinction

A population, species or more inclusive taxonomic group has gone extinct when all its individuals have died. A species may go extinct locally (population extinction), regionally ( extinction of all populations in a country, continent or ocean) or globally. Populations or species reduced to such low numbers that they are no longer of economic or functional importance may be said to have gone economically or functionally extinct, respectively. Species extinctions are typically not documented immediately: for example, the IUCN Red List categories and criteria require there to be no reasonable doubt that all individuals have died, before a species is formally listed as Extinct (see IUCN Red List).

Sustainable use assessment
extinction debt

The future extinction of species due to events in the past, owing to a time lag between an effect such as habitat destruction or climate change, and the subsequent disappearance of species.

Global assessment (1st work programme), Global assessment (1st work programme), Europe and Central Asia assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment, Pollination assessment
extinction

A population, species or more inclusive taxonomic group has gone extinct when all its individuals have died. A species may go extinct locally (population extinction), regionally (e.g. extinction of all populations in a country, continent or ocean) or glo.

extinction

The evolutionary termination of a species caused by the failure to reproduce and the death of all remaining members of the species; the natural failure to adapt to environmental change.

Americas assessment
extractive practice

Extractive practices are defined as the temporary or permanent removal of organisms, part of them or materials derived from them, and may result in mortality of the individual to be used (hunting or whole plant harvest), but does not necessarily do so (e.g. limited collection of plant propagules or shearing and releasing of vicuna).

Sustainable use assessment
extractives

Hydrocarbons (oil and gas) and minerals.

Americas 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.

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).

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).

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.

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

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.

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,.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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
mesic areas

Synonym for moist areas (IUCN, 2012a).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
meta-analysis

A quantitative statistical analysis of several separate but similar experiments or studies in order to test the pooled data for statistical significance.

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

Chemical transformations that sustain life at the cell level.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
micro-habitat

The small-scale physical requirements of a particular organism or population.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
micro-plastics

Plastic debris that are less than five millimeters in length (NOAA, 2018a).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
microevolution

A change in gene frequency within a population. Evolution at this scale can be observed over short periods of time - for example, between one generation and the next, the frequency of a gene for pesticide resistance in a population of crop pests increases. Such a change might come about because natural selection favored the gene, because the population received new immigrants carrying the gene, because some nonresistant genes mutated to the resistant version, or because of random genetic drift from one generation to the next.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
micronutrients

Substances that are only needed in very small amounts but essential to organisms to produce enzymes, hormones and other substances fundamental for proper growth and development (WHO, 2015).

Global assessment (1st work programme)