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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
paired catchment

Paired catchment studies have been widely used to assess the likely impact of land use change on water yield around the world. Such studies involve the use of two catchments (drainage basins) with similar characteristics in terms of slope, aspect, soils, area, precipitation and vegetation located adjacent to each other. Following a calibration period, where both catchments are monitored, one of the catchments is subjected to treatment and the other remains as a control. This allows the climatic variability to be accounted for in the analysis. The change in water yield can then be attributed to changes in vegetation. The paired catchment studies reported in the literature can be divided into four broad categories: (i) afforestation experiments; (ii) regrowth experiments; (iii) deforestation experiments; and (iv) forest conversion experiments.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
paleological data

Information on environment event and trends (e.g. paleoclimate).

Land degradation and restoration assessment
palma ratio

The share of all income received by the 10% people with highest disposable income divided by the share of all income received by the 40% people with the lowest disposable income (OECD, 2018b).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
parasite

An organism that lives on or within another organism of a different species (the host) from which it obtains nourishment and to which it causes harm.

Pollination assessment
paris agreement

Agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) dealing with greenhouse gas emissions mitigation, adaptation and finance starting in the year 2020.

Asia-Pacific assessment
participatory governance

A variant or subset of governance which puts emphasis on democratic engagement, in particular through deliberative practices.

Americas assessment, Sustainable use assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment
participatory mapping

A key method that many indigenous communities apply in order to collect data, information and monitoring and to use it in science- policy- society interface processes.

Europe and Central Asia assessment
participatory method

Participatory research methods are a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods geared towards planning and conducting the research process with those people whose life-world and meaningful actions are under study (Bergold & Thomas, 2012). Participatory methods acknowledge the possibility, the significance, and the usefulness of involving research partners in the knowledge-production process (Bergold, 2007).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
participatory method

Participatory research methods are a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods geared towards planning and conducting the research process with those people whose life-world and meaningful actions are under study (Bergold & Thomas, 2012). Participatory methods acknowledge the possibility, the significance, and the usefulness of involving research partners in the knowledge- production process.

Sustainable use assessment
participatory process

Specific methods employed to achieve active participation by all members of a group in a decision-making process (Chatty et al., 2003).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
participatory process

Specific methods employed to achieve active participation by all members of a group in a decision-making process.

Sustainable use assessment
participatory scenario development (and planning)

Approaches characterised by more interactive, and inclusive, involvement of stakeholders in the formulation and evaluation of scenarios. Aimed at improving the transparency and relevance of decision-making, by incorporating demands and information of each stakeholder, and negotiating outcomes between stakeholders.

Asia-Pacific assessment
participatory scenario development (and planning)

Approaches characterized by more interactive, and inclusive, involvement of stakeholders in the formulation and evaluation of scenarios. Aimed at improving the transparency and relevance of decision-making, by incorporating demands and information of each stakeholder, and negotiating outcomes between stakeholders.

Land degradation and restoration assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment
participatory scenario development (and planning)

Approaches characterised by more interactive, and inclusive, involvement of stakeholders in the formulation and evaluation of scenarios. Aimed at improving the transparency and relevance of decision making, by incorporating demands and information of each stakeholder, and negotiating outcomes between stakeholders.

Americas assessment, Scenarios and models assessment
particulate and gaseous pollutant

Air pollutants such as ozone, nitrogen oxides and ammonia.

Europe and Central Asia assessment
particulate matter

A mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets (dust, dirt, soot, or smoke) (US Environmental Protection Agency, 2018b).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
particulate matter

A mixture of solid particles (dust, dirt, soot, or smoke) and liquid droplets.

Europe and Central Asia assessment
particulate matter

Particulate matter (PM), also known as atmospheric particulate matter, or suspended particulate matter (SPM) are microscopic solid or liquid matter suspended in Earth's atmosphere. Sources of particulate matter can be natural or anthropogenic. They have impacts on climate and precipitation that adversely affect human health.

Asia-Pacific assessment
particulate matter

A mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets (dust, dirt, soot, or smoke).

Americas assessment
particulate organic carbon

The carbon content of particulate organic matter (Fiedler et al., 2008).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
particulate organic matter

The large fraction (usually more than 7 micrometers) of soil organic matter (Fiedler et al., 2008).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
passive restoration

See restoration.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
pastoralism

Extensive livestock production in rangelands.

Europe and Central Asia assessment
pathway management

any action taken (single or via systems approach) towards a particular anthropogenic invasive alien species arrival pathway (e.g., trade) to prevent or address the threats and risks of an invasive alien species arriving and establishing via that pathway either between or within jurisdictions

Invasive alien species assessment
pathways

In the context of the IPBES global assessment, trajectories toward the achievement of goals and targets for biodiversity conservation and management of nature and nature’s contributions to people.

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

“Pathways” consist of descriptions of different strategies for moving from the current situation towards a desired future vision or set of specified targets. They are descriptions of purposive courses of actions that build on each other, from short-term to long-term actions into broader transformation. They are closely related to normative or policy or target-seeking scenarios.

Values assessment
pathways

In the context of the IPBES global assessment, trajectories toward the achievement of goals and targets for biodiversity conservation, the management of nature and nature’s contributions to people, and, more broadly, the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Values assessment
patrimonial species

A rare or threatened species which needs local management and which may be a flagship species and may have cultural importance (Pervanchon, 2004).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
payment for ecosystem services

Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) are a specific class of approach, used to facilitate voluntary transaction between a provider and a user of a service, conditioned on natural resource management rules for dealing with environmental externalities. PES is created to deal with market failures, environmental externalities, property rights problems and asymmetric information between economic actors.

Sustainable use assessment
payment for ecosystem services

Voluntary transactions that generate offsite services and are established to enable service users to pay resource providers for the conditional provision of the desired ecosystem service.

Americas assessment
payment for ecosystem services

A payment mechanism that involves a series of payments to land or other natural resource owners in return for a guaranteed flow of ecosystem services or certain actions likely to enhance their provision over-and-above what would otherwise be provided in the absence of payment.

Global assessment (1st work programme), Asia-Pacific assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment
payment for ecosystem services

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) is a term used to describe a process whereas a beneficiary or user of an ecosystem service makes a direct or indirect payment to a provider of that service. PES involve a series of payments to land or other natural resource owners in return for a guaranteed flow of ecosystem services or certain actions likely to enhance their provision over-¬and-above what would otherwise be provided in the absence of payment.

peatland

Wetlands which accumulate organic plant matter in situ because waterlogging prevents aerobic decomposition and the much slower rate of the resulting anaerobic decay is exceeded by the rate of accumulation.

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