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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)
monetary valuation

The amount of value an item or a service has in relation to its acceptable cash price for a willing seller and buyer.

Pollination assessment
monitoring

Monitoring is the repeated observation of a system in order to detect signs of change.

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

The repeated observation of a system in order to detect signs of change.

Global assessment (1st work programme), Americas assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment, Land degradation and restoration assessment
monitoring

for the purpose of this assessment, the continued or regular observation of an ecosystem to detect invasion/reinvasion by invasive alien species and/or their impacts.

Invasive alien species assessment
monoculture

The cultivation or growth of only one agricultural product in a given area (field, farm, garden, forest).

Pollination assessment
monoculture

The agricultural practice of producing or growing a single crop, plant, or livestock species, variety, or breed in a field or farming system at a time.

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

The condition in which a group of taxa share a common ancestry, being the entire set of evolutionary descendants from a common ancestor.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
moral economy

A moral economy, initially based on peasants’ sense of belonging and sharing, is an economy that is based on goodness, fairness, and justice. Such an economy is generally only stable in small, closely knit communities, where the principles of mutuality operate.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
mosaic landscape

A pattern of landscapes with multiple patches and corridors.

Europe and Central Asia assessment
mosaic restoration

Landscape scale restoration efforts that do not rely on a single restoration mechanism for an entire landscape, or it is a single mechanism, deploying it in a spatially variable manner that creates patches of restored and non-restored landscape units.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
mother earth

An expression used in a number of countries and regions to refer to the planet Earth and the entity that sustains all living things found in nature with which humans have an indivisible, interdependent physical and spiritual relationship.

Scenarios and models assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme), Asia-Pacific assessment, Sustainable use assessment
mother earth

An expression used in a number of countries and regions to refer to the planet Earth and the entity that sustains all living things found in nature with which humans have an indivisible, interdependent physical and spiritual relationship (see nature).

Land degradation and restoration assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment, Africa assessment, Americas assessment
motivation

One’s general willingness to do something. It is the set of psychological forces that compel you to take action. Motivation can be extrinsic - based on changes in external conditions, external rewards. Intrinsic motivation refers to an inherent drive to seek out challenges and new possibilities.

Values assessment
motivation crowding

Providing extrinsic incentives for certain kinds of behaviour - such as promising monetary rewards for accomplishing more of intrinsically/ normatively motivated action - can undermine that motivation for performing the behaviour, diminished motivation to act.

Values assessment
multi stakeholder based scenario development

See Participatory scenario development.

Asia-Pacific assessment
multi-criteria analysis

A sub-discipline of operations research that explicitly evaluates multiple conflicting criteria in decision-making.

Asia-Pacific assessment
multidisciplinary expert panel

The IPBES Multidiscplinary Expert Panel is a subsidiary body established by the IPBES Plenary which oversees the scientific and technical functions ofthe Platform, a key role being to select experts to carry out assessments.

Europe and Central Asia assessment, Sustainable use assessment, Americas assessment
multidisciplinary expert panel

Within the context of IPBES - a subsidiary body established by the IPBES Plenary which carries out the scientific and technical functions agreed upon by the Plenary, as articulated in the document on functions, operating principles and institutional arrangements of IPBES.

Scenarios and models assessment
multifunctional ‘scape

where ‘scape is shorthand for ‘land-, freshwater- and sea-scape’, is a contiguous area defined by major geomorphological (e.g. major watersheds, geological systems and major biomes) and/or oceanographic processes (major current regimes, biogeochemical processes). Scale may vary with the application. A ‘scape may include a mosaic of habitats across all conditions of nature from intact in ‘wild spaces’, through modified and altered in ‘shared spaces’ where humans have a significant impact on the biota and may alter function considerably, to ‘anthromes’ or fully transformed agricultural and urban areas where the coverage of natural habitats is very low or even zero.

IPBES-IPCC co-sponsored workshop on biodiversity and climate change
multifunctional agriculture

The concept was adopted by FAO (1999) to foster an approach integrating landscape, biological connections, and less damageable practices. Multifunctional agriculture is meant to integrate the economic, social and ecological aspects of land management.

Land degradation and restoration assessment
multifunctionality

The condition of being multifunctional; diversity of function.

Asia-Pacific assessment
muti-use system

Multi-use systems are defined as socio-ecosystems in which occur more than one use or practice (e.g. fishing and logging in mangroves).

Sustainable use assessment
mutualism

Interaction between two species that benefits the two species (Bronstein, 1994).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
observing

Observing is defined as a non-extractive practice that is based on the observation of wild species. The observation can imply some interaction with the wild species, such as the activities of wildlife tourism and whale watching or no interaction with the wild species, such as photography.

Sustainable use assessment
ocean acidification

See acidification.

Americas assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme), Europe and Central Asia assessment
oceanic gyre

Large system of rotating ocean currents. There are five major gyres: the North and South Pacific Subtropical Gyres, the North and South Atlantic Subtropical Gyres, and the Indian Ocean Subtropical Gyre (NOAA, 2018c).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
oceanic oxygen minimum zones

Oxygen-deficient layers in the ocean water column. OMZs correspond to subsurface oceanic zones reaching ultra-low values of O2 concentration (Paulmier & Ruiz-Pino, 2008).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
oil spill

An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution.

Asia-Pacific assessment
old-growth forest

From an ecological point of view, old-growth forests are a stage of forest development characterized by large/old trees and structural complexity including live and dead trees, and vertical and horizontal heterogeneity (including a multi-layered canopy). The structural diversity of old growth forests often supports distinctive/specialist biodiversity; large/old trees are keystone components of the ecosystem (Lindenmayer et al., 2012). In addition, the long-period of forest development without stand replacement disturbance allows many poor-dispersing species to accumulate (IUFRO, 2018). Other definitions can be found based on economic and social perspectives (Hilbert & Wienscczyk, 2007).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
oligotrophic

Nutrient-poor environment (IUCN, 2012a).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
oligotrophic

Nutrient-poor environment.

Sustainable use assessment
one biosecurity

interdisciplinary approach to biosecurity policy and research that builds on the interconnections between human, animal, plant, and environmental health to effectively prevent and mitigate the impacts of invasive alien species. It provides an integrated perspective to address the many biosecurity risks that transcend the traditional boundaries of health, agriculture, and the environment. Individual invasive alien plant and animal species often have multiple impacts across sectors: as hosts of zoonotic parasites, vectors of pathogens, pests of agriculture or forestry, as well as threats to biodiversity and ecosystem function

Invasive alien species assessment
one health

The One Health Initiative is a movement to forge co-equal, all inclusive collaborations between physicians, osteopathic physicians, veterinarians, dentists, nurses and other scientific-health and environmentally related disciplines.

Asia-Pacific assessment
one health

an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals, and ecosystems. It recognizes the health of humans, domestic and wild animals, plants, and the wider environment (including ecosystems) are closely linked and interdependent (One Health High-Level Expert Panel

Invasive alien species assessment
ontology

The philosophical study of the nature of being, becoming, existence, or reality, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
ontology

The study or concern about what kinds of things exist - what entities there are in the universe. It is a branch of metaphysics,.

Pollination assessment
open ocean pelagic systems

Marine ecosystems in the light-flooded (euphotic) zone.

Global assessment (1st work programme)
opportunity cost

The added cost of using resources (as for production or speculative investment) that is the difference between the actual value resulting from such use and that of an alternative (such as another use of the same resources or an investment of equal risk but greater return).

Land degradation and restoration assessment
opportunity cost

The foregone benefits of carrying out one activity in favor of another, or giving up their initial preferred land-use plan.

Americas assessment
option value

The potential ability to use some of nature’s benefits in the future, although they are not currently used, or the likelihood for their future use is low. It represents the willingness to preserve an option for the future enjoyment of nature’s benefits.

Scenarios and models assessment
organic agriculture

Any system that emphasizes the use of techniques such as crop rotation, compost or manure application, and biological pest control in preference to synthetic inputs. Most certified organic farming schemes prohibit all genetically modified organisms and almost all synthetic inputs. Its origins are in a holistic management system that avoids off-farm inputs, but some organic agriculture now uses relatively high levels of off-farm inputs.

Land degradation and restoration assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme), Pollination assessment
organic agriculture

Any system that emphasises the use of techniques such as crop rotation, compost or manure application, and biological pest control in preference to synthetic inputs. Most certified organic farming schemes prohibit all genetically modified organisms and almost all synthetic inputs. Its origins are in a holistic management system that avoids off-farm inputs, but some organic agriculture now uses relatively high levels of off-farm inputs.

Europe and Central Asia assessment, Americas assessment, Asia-Pacific assessment
organic farming

Crop and livestock production using natural sources of nutrients (such as compost, crop residues, and manure) and natural methods of crop and weed control, instead of using synthetic or inorganic agrochemicals. Genetically modified organisms are not usually part of organic agriculture. It is also sometimes called low- input farming, but may involve high inputs of labour and be intensive in its practice.

Pollination assessment
other effective area-based conservation measures

A geographically defined area other than a protected area, which is governed and managed in ways that achieve positive and sustained long- term outcomes for the in situ conservation of biodiversity (CBD, 2018a).

Global assessment (1st work programme)
overexploitation

Overexploitation means harvesting species from the wild at rates faster than natural populations can recover. Includes overfishing, and overgrazing.

Asia-Pacific assessment, Sustainable use assessment
overexploitation

Harvesting species from the wild at rates faster than natural populations can recover. Includes overfishing, and overgrazing.

Africa assessment, Europe and Central Asia assessment, Americas assessment, Global assessment (1st work programme)
overgrazing

Overgrazing occurs when plants are exposed to intensive grazing for extended periods of time, or without sufficient recovery periods. It can be caused by either livestock in poorly managed agricultural applications, game reserves, or nature reserves. It can also be caused by immobile, travel restricted populations of native or non-native wild animals.

Asia-Pacific assessment, Sustainable use assessment
overgrazing

An excess of herbivory that leads to degradation of plant and soil resources.

Americas assessment
overstocking

Placing a number of animals on a given area that will result in overuse if continued to the end of the planned grazing period.

Land degradation and restoration assessment