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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)
procedural justice

refers to fairness in the political processes that allocate resources and resolve disputes. It involves recognition, inclusion, representation and participation in decision-making.

Values assessment
process-based model

A model in which relationships are described in terms of explicitly stated processes or mechanisms based on established scientific understanding, and model parameters therefore have clear ecological interpretation, defined beforehand.

Scenarios and models assessment
process-based model

See models.

Europe and Central Asia assessment
producer surplus

The amount that producers benefit by selling at a market price that is higher than the least that they would be willing to accept for that good or service. It is roughly equal to profit (q.v.): producers are not normally willing to sell at a loss, and are normally indifferent to selling at a break-even price.

Pollination assessment
production function

A mathematical equation or graph that shows the relationship between physical inputs and physical outputs for a business.

Pollination assessment
profit

The financial gain, especially the difference between the amount earned and the amount spent in buying, operating, or producing something.

Pollination assessment
projection

Any description of the future, and the pathway leading to it.

Scenarios and models assessment
propagule pressure

The quantity, quality and frequency of propagules (such as spores, eggs, larvae, or adults) released in a given location. This term can be seen as the introduction effort, i.e. the pool of individuals introduced in a new ecosystem/area/region and the number of times it is released.

Americas assessment
propagule pressure

a measure of introduction intensity, including release from captivity or cultivation, comprising both the number of individuals of a species introduced per introduction (propagule size) and the frequency of introductions

Invasive alien species assessment
protected area

A protected area is a clearly defined geographical space, recognized, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values.

Asia-Pacific assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment, Americas assessment, Africa assessment, Sustainable use assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme), Pollination assessment
protected area downgrading, downsizing and degazettement

Refers to legal changes that ease restrictions on the use of a protected area, shrink a protected area's boundaries or eliminate legal protections entirely (Mascia & Pailler, 2011).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
protected area

A clearly defined geographical space, recognized, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
provisioning service

The products people obtain from ecosystems; may include food, freshwater, timber, fibres, medicinal plants.

Africa assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment, Sustainable use assessment
public-private partnership

A long-term contract between a private party and a government entity, for providing a public asset or service, in which the private party bears significant risk and management responsibility and remuneration is linked to performance.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
purchasing power parity

An economic theory that estimates the amount of adjustment needed on the exchange rate between countries in order for the exchange to be equivalent to each currency’s purchasing power. It states that exchange rates between currencies are in equilibrium when their purchasing power is the same in each of the two countries. This means that the exchange rate between two countries should equal the ratio of the two countries’ price level of a fixed basket of goods and services.

Pollination assessment
water footprint

The measure of humanity's use of fresh water as represented in volumes of water consumed and/or polluted.

Land degradation and restoration assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme)
water footprint

The water footprint measures the amount of water used to produce each of the goods and services we use. It can be measured for a single process, such as growing rice, for a product, such as a pair of jeans, for the fuel we put in our car, or for an entire.

water grabbing

A situation where powerful actors are able to take control of, or reallocate to their own benefits, water resources already used by local communities or feeding aquatic ecosystems on which their livelihoods are based (Mehta et al., 2012).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
water logging

An excess of water on top and/or within the soil, leading to reduced air availability in the soil for long periods.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
water purification

Vegetation, and specially aquatic plants, can assist in removing sediments and nutrients and other impurities from water.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
water security index

The ratio of total water withdrawal to the water availability including environmental flow requirements. Higher WSI values lead to decreasing water security.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
water security

The capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of and acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development, for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability.

water security

The capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of and acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development, for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution, water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
water security

The reliable availability of an acceptable quantity and quality of water for health, livelihoods and production, coupled with an acceptable level of water-related risks.

Asia-Pacific assessment
water security

The capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of and acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio- economic development, for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability.

Africa assessment, Americas assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment
water stress

Physiological stress experienced by a plant as a result of a lack of available moisture or a low water potential in the surrounding soil; an instance of this. Economic or political pressures in a country or region as a result of insufficient access to fresh water.

Global assessment (1st work programme), Asia-Pacific assessment
water stress

Water stress occurs in an organism when the demand for water exceeds the available amount during a certain period or when poor quality restricts its use.

Europe and Central Asia assessment, Africa assessment, Americas assessment
water table

The upper surface of the zone of ground water.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
water use efficiency

The ratio between effective water use and actual water withdrawal. In irrigation, it represents the ratio between estimated plant water requirements (through evapotranspiration) and actual water withdrawal.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
weed

A plant that is a pest (q.v.) in a particular circumstance.

Pollination assessment
welfare

See 'Social welfare'.

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

The provision of a minimal level of well- being (q.v.) and social support for all citizens.

Pollination assessment
well established (certainty term (q.v.))

Consensus from a comprehensive meta- analysis7 or other synthesis, or multiple independent studies that agree.

Pollination assessment
wellbeing (human)

Human well-being is a state in which there is opportunity for satisfying social relationships and where human needs are met, where one can act meaningfully to pursue one's goals and where one enjoys a satisfactory quality of life”.

Sustainable use assessment
wellbeing

A perspective on a good life that comprises access to basic materials for a good life, freedom and choice, health and physical well-being, good social relations, security, peace of mind and spiritual experience.

Scenarios and models assessment
wellbeing

A perspective on a good life that comprises access to basic resources, freedom and choice, health and physical well-being, good social relationships, security, peace of mind and spiritual experience. Human well-being is a state of being with others and the environment. Well-being is achieved when individuals and communities can act meaningfully to pursue their goals and everyone can enjoy a good quality of life. The concept of human well-being is used in many western societies and its variants, together with living in harmony with nature, and living well in balance and harmony with Mother Earth.

Land degradation and restoration assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment
wellbeing

A perspective on a good life that comprises access to basic resources, freedom and choice, health and physical well-being, good social relationships, security, peace of mind and spiritual experience. Well-being is achieved when individuals and communities can act meaningfully to pursue their goals and can enjoy a good quality of life. The concept of human well- being is used in many western societies and its variants, together with living in harmony with nature, and living well in balance and harmony with Mother Earth. All these are different perspectives on a good quality of life.

Africa assessment
wellbeing

A perspective on a good life that comprises access to basic resources, freedom and choice, health and physical well-being, good social relationships, security, peace of mind and spiritual experience. Well-being is achieved when individuals and communities can act meaningfully to pursue their goals and can enjoy a good quality of life. The concept of human well-being is used in many western societies and its variants, together with living in harmony with nature, and living well in balance and harmony with Mother Earth. All these are different perspectives on a good quality of life.

Americas assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment
wellbeing

A perspective on a good life that comprises access to basic resources, freedom and choice, health and physical well-being, good social relations, security, peace of mind and spiritual experience. Human wellbeing is a state of being with others and the environment. Wellbeing is achieved when individuals and communities can act meaningfully to pursue their goals and everyone can enjoy a good quality of life.

Pollination assessment
wellbeing (human)

A perspective on a good life that comprises access to basic resources, freedom and choice, health and physical, including psychological, well- being, good social relationships, security, equity, peace of mind and spiritual experience. Well-being is achieved when individuals and communities can act meaningfully to pursue their goals and can enjoy a good quality of life. The concept of human well-being is used in many western societies and its variants, together with living in harmony with nature, and living well in balance and harmony with Mother Earth. All these are different perspectives on a good quality of life.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
western culture

(Also called modern science, Western scientific knowledge or international science) is used in the context of the IPBES conceptual framework as a broad term to refer to knowledge typically generated in universities, research institutions and private firms following paradigms and methods typically associated with the scientific method consolidated in Post-Renaissance Europe on the basis of wider and more ancient roots. It is typically transmitted through scientific journals and scholarly books. Some of its central tenets are observer independence, replicable findings, systematic scepticism, and transparent research methodologies with standard units and categories.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
western culture

(Also called modern science, Western scientific knowledge or international science) is used in the context of the IPBES conceptual framework as a broad term to refer to knowledge typically generated in universities, research institutions and private firms following paradigms and methods typically associated with the ‘scientific method’ consolidated in Post-Renaissance Europe on the basis of wider and more ancient roots. It is typically transmitted through scientific journals and scholarly books. Some of its central tenets are observer independence, replicable findings, systematic scepticism, and transparent research methodologies with standard units and categories.

Sustainable use assessment
western science

(Also called modern science, Western scientific knowledge or international science) is used in the context of the IPBES conceptual framework as a broad term to refer to knowledge typically generated in universities, research institutions and private firms following paradigms and methods typically associated with the ‘scientific method' consolidated in Post-Renaissance Europe on the basis of wider and more ancient roots. It is typically transmitted through scientific journals and scholarly books. Some of its central tenets are observer independence, replicable findings, systematic scepticism, and transparent research methodologies with standard units and categories.

Americas assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment
western science

Also called modern science, Western scientific knowledge or international science, and used in the context of the IPBES conceptual framework as a broad term to refer to knowledge typically generated in universities, research institutions and private firms following paradigms and methods typically associated with the scientific method consolidated in Post-Renaissance Europe on the basis of wider and more ancient roots. It is typically transmitted through scientific journals and scholarly books. Some of its central tenets are observer independence, replicable findings, systematic scepticism, and transparent research methodologies with standard units and categories.

wetland

Areas that are subject to inundation or soil saturation at a frequency and duration, such that the plant communities present are dominated by species adapted to growing in saturated soil conditions, and/or that the soils of the area are chemically and physically modified due to saturation and indicate a lack of oxygen; such areas are frequently termed peatlands, marshes, swamps, sloughs, fens, bogs, wet meadows, etc.

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

species that are able to maintain viable populations across a range of environments leading to a large range size. Widespread species are likely to experience a large range of ecological and climatic conditions within their range. A large niche width – based on the current distribution of a species – seems to be a general pattern in widespread species

Invasive alien species assessment
wild food

Wild foods are food products obtained from non-domesticated species.

Sustainable use assessment
wild habitat

See 'Natural habitat'.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
wild habitat

See “Natural habitat”.

Sustainable use assessment
wild meat

Wild meat is defined as meat for human consumption derived from wild species.

Sustainable use assessment