Biodiversity | The variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within the species, between species and of ecosystems CBD (1992) |
Biodiversity dependency | A reliance on or use of biodiversity, including biological resources (e.g., materials, liquids, genetic resources) from both species and interaction with various ecosystem processes and services (e.g., pollination, water filtration, crop pest/disease control or water flow regulation) CDSB (2021) |
Biodiversity impact | A change in the diversity of ecosystems and/or species that may take place because of business activities. Changes to the state of ecosystems (e.g., extent and condition/integrity) and species (e.g., habitat, population size) can be used to signal changes in biodiversity CDSB (2021) |
Biodiversity loss | The reduction of any aspect of biological diversity (i.e., diversity at the genetic, species and ecosystem levels) is lost in a particular area through death (including extinction), destruction or manual removal; it can refer to many scales, from global extinctions to population extinctions, resulting in decreased total diversity at the same scale IPBES (n.d.) |
Biodiversity Mainstreaming | The mainstreaming of biodiversity can be defined as integrating or including actions related to conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity at every stage of the policy, plan, programme, and project cycle, regardless of whether inter-national organizations, businesses or governments lead the process. The objective of mainstreaming biodiversity is to help reduce the negative impacts that productive sectors, development investments and other human activities exert on biodiversity, by highlighting the contribution of biodiversity to socioeconomic development and human well-being. This requires enhanced collaboration with development sectors and actors CBD (n.d.) |
Ecological Footprint | The ecological footprint measures how much nature we use compared to how much we have. This accounting approach tracks how much biologically productive land and water area an individual, population or activity uses to produce all the resources it consumes, to house all its infrastructure, and to absorb its waste given prevailing technology and resource management practices Global Footprint Network (n.d.) |
Ecosystem | A dynamic complex of plant, animal, and microorganism communities, and the non-living environment interacting as a functional unit Global Footprint Network (n.d.) |
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 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) |
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 IPBES (n.d.) |
Financing Green | Through investments that can create a positive impact on nature, for example through protection and restoration of degraded habitats, or by supporting economic and social development that reduces the pressures on biodiversity. Such investments are increasingly termed ‘nature-positive’ WWF & The Biodiversity Consultancy group (2021) |
Greening Finance | So that investment decisions include better consideration of nature-related risks and impacts, to avoid, minimise, restore and when necessary, offset negative impacts to biodiversity WWF & The Biodiversity Consultancy group (2021) |
Nature | In the context of IPBES, refers to the natural world with an emphasis on its living components. Within the context of western science, it includes categories such as biodiversity, ecosystems (both structure and functioning), evolution, the biosphere; humankind’s shared evolutionary heritage, and biocultural diversity. Within the context of other knowledge systems, it includes categories such as Mother Earth and systems of life, and it is often viewed as inextricably linked to humans, not as a separate entity IPBES (n.d.) |
Mitigation hierarchy | A sequence of actions applied to the management of biodiversity impacts, consisting of four stages:
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Natural Capital | The stock of renewable and non-renewable natural resources (e.g., plants, animals, air, water, soils, minerals) that combine to yield a flow of benefits to people Natural Capital Coalition (2016) |
Nature-based Solutions | Actions to protect, conserve, restore, sustainably use and manage natural or modified terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems, which address social, economic and environmental challenges effectively and adaptively, while simultaneously providing human well-being, ecosystem services and resilience and biodiversity benefits UNEA (2022) |
Nature’s Contributions to People | All the contributions, both positive and negative, of living nature (i.e., diversity of organisms, ecosystems, and their associated ecological and evolutionary processes) to the quality of life for people. Beneficial contributions from nature include such things as food provision, water purification, flood control, and artistic inspiration, whereas detrimental contributions include disease transmission and predation that damages people or their assets. Many NCP may be perceived as benefits or detriments depending on the cultural, temporal, or spatial context IPBES (n.d.) |
Physical Risk | Risks arising when natural systems are compromised, due to the impact of climatic (i.e., extremes of weather) or geologic (i.e., seismic) events or changes in ecosystem equilibria, such as soil quality or marine ecology. These can be event driven (acute), chronic or both TNFD (2022) |
Transitional Risk | Risks that result from a misalignment between an organisation or an investor’s strategy and management and the changing regulatory and policy landscape in which it operates. Developments aimed at halting or reversing the damage to nature, such as government measures, technological breakthroughs, major changes, litigation and changing consumer preferences can all impact risks TNFD (2022) |
Safeguards | Policies and tools for minimising and managing biodiversity impact IPBES (2019) |
Systemic Risk | Risks arising from the breakdown of an entire system, rather than the failure of individuals parts. Characterised by modest tipping points combining indirectly to produce large failure and cascading interactions of physical and transition risks (contagion), as one loss triggers a chain of others and stops systems from recovering their equilibrium after a shock TNFD (2022) |
Value Chain | An organisation’s direct operations, upstream activities, and downstream activities. Direct operations cover activities over which the organisation has direct control, upstream activities cover the activities of suppliers and downstream activities are those linked to the purchase, use, re-use, recovery, recycling and final disposal of the organisation’s products and services CDSB (2021) |
TCFD | Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures |
TEEB | The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity |
TNFD | Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures |
UNEP | United Nations Environment Programme |
WBCSD | World Business Council for Sustainable Development |
WWF | Worldwide Fund for Nature |