Glossary

Biodiversity:

the variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part. Biodiversity includes diversity within species, between species, and between ecosystems.*

Benefits transfer approach:

economic valuation approach in which estimates obtained (by whatever method) in one context are used to estimate values in a different context.*

Cost-benefit analysis:

a technique designed to determine the feasibility of a project or plan by quantifying its costs and benefits.*

Degradation of an ecosystem service:

for provisioning services, decreased production of the service through changes in area over which the services is provided, or decreased production per unit area. For regulating and supporting services, a reduction in the benefits obtained from the service, either through a change in the service or through human pressures on the service exceeding its limits. For cultural services, a change in the ecosystem features that decreases the cultural benefits provided by the ecosystem.*

Degradation of ecosystems:

a persistent reduction in the capacity to provide ecosystem services.*

Driver:

any natural or human-induced factor that directly or indirectly causes a change in an ecosystem.*

Driver, direct:

a driver that unequivocally influences ecosystem processes and can therefore be identified and measured to differing degrees of accuracy.*

Driver, indirect:

a driver that operates by altering the level or rate of change of one or more direct drivers.*

Ecosystem:

A dynamic complex of plant, animal, and microorganism communities and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit.*

Ecosystem approach

a strategy for the integrated management of land, water, and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way. An ecosystem approach is based on the application of appropriate scientific methods focused on levels of biological organization, which encompass the essential structure, processes, functions, and interactions among organisms and their environment. It recognizes that humans, with their cultural diversity, are an integral component of many ecosystems.+

Ecosystem assessment:

a social process through which the findings of science concerning the causes of ecosystem change, their consequences for human well-being, and management and policy options are brought to bear on the needs of decision-makers.*

Ecosystem services:

the benefits people obtain from ecosystems. These include provisioning services such as food and water; regulating services such as flood and disease control; cultural services such as spiritual, recreational, and cultural benefits; and supporting services such as nutrient cycling that maintain the conditions for life on earth. The concept ‘‘ecosystem goods and services’’ is synonymous with ecosystem services.*

Environmental accounting:

refers to national accounting: physical and monetary accounts of environmental assets and the costs of their depletion and degradation; corporate accounting: the term usually refers to environmental auditing, but may also include the costing of environmental impacts caused by the corporation.#

Natural assets:

assets of the natural environment. These consist of biological assets (produced or wild), land and water areas with their ecosystems, subsoil assets and air.#

Natural capital:

the term ‘capital’ is used to describe a stock or resource that produces revenue or yield. Natural capital is usually interpreted as an economic metaphor for environmental assets, such as forests, soils or marine habitats that supply resources to the economy or offer a receptacle for disposal of wastes. Four basic categories of natural capital are generally recognised: air, water (fresh, groundwater and marine), land (including soil, space and landscape) and habitats (including the ecosystems, flora and fauna which they both comprise and support). The quantity and the quality of natural capital affects the quantity and quality of benefits generated.^

Natural resources:

natural assets (raw materials) occurring in nature that can be used for economic production or consumption.#

Natural resource accounting:

an accounting system that deals with stocks and stock changes of natural assets, comprising biota (produced or wild), subsoil assets (proved reserves), water and land with their aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. It is frequently used in the sense of physical accounting as distinguished from monetary (environmental) accounting.#

Policy-maker:

a person with power to influence or determine policies and practices at an international, national, regional, or local level.*

Scenario:

a plausible and often simplified description of how the future may develop, based on a coherent and internally consistent set of assumptions about key driving forces (e.g., rate of technology change, prices) and relationships. Scenarios are neither predictions nor projections and sometimes may be based on a ‘‘narrative story-line.’’ Scenarios may include projections but are often based on additional information from other sources.*

Valuation:

process of expressing a value for a particular good or service in a certain context (e.g., of decision-making) usually in terms of something that can be counted, often money, but also through methods and measures from other disciplines (sociology, ecology, and so on). See also Value.*

Value:

contribution of an action or object to user-specified goals, objectives, or conditions. (Compare Valuation.)*

Value systems:

norms and precepts that guide human judgment and action. Well-being: A context- and situation-dependent state, comprising basic material for a good life, freedom and choice, health and bodily well-being, good social relations, security, peace of mind, and spiritual experience.*

Sources

+ CBD 2010, Ecosystem Approach: http://www.cbd.int/ecosystem/description.shtml

* Chopra, K., Leemans, R., Kumar, P., Simons, H. (eds.) (2005): Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Policy Responses, findings of the Responses Working Group of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, Volume 3. Appendix D Glossary. Island Press, Washington, 621 pp.

^ House of Parliament / Parliamentary Office of Science & Technology (2011): Living with Environmental Limits, POSTReport Number 370.

# OECD, Glossary of statistical terms: http://stats.oecd.org/glossary/index.htm