UNCCD Terminology

The biomass of living vegetation, both woody and herbaceous, above the soil including stems, stumps, branches, bark, seeds, and foliage See also ‘Below ground biomass’

One of the factors recommended to estimate the economic component of the Drought Vulnerability Index (DVI). Agriculture corresponds to International Standard Industrial Classifications (ISIC) divisions 1-5 and includes forestry, hunting, and fishing, as well as cultivation of crops and livestock production. This factor refers to the value added for agriculture as a percentage of the gross value added at factor cost. It implies a higher coping capacity of populations. See also ‘Drought Vulnerability Index (DVI)’

Amounts mobilised from the private sector by official development finance intervention. In OECD DAC statistics, mobilisation means the stimulation by specific financial mechanisms/interventions of additional resource flows for development. Amounts mobilised from the private sector are collected following an instrument-specific approach (see Annex 6). They cover all private finance mobilised by official development finance interventions regardless of the origin of the private funds (provider country, recipient country, third country). For the purpose of the SO5 indicator framework, amounts mobilized through public interventions can be reported under SO5-1 for practical reasons (as they are incorporated in the OECD DAC CRS), but should be summed up to the amounts reported under SO5-3, international private resources.

Enclosing and protecting an area of degraded land from human use and animal interference to permit natural rehabilitation, enhanced by additional vegetative and structural conservation measures.

For UNCCD reporting the baseline period during which baseline conditions should be calculated, is the 16 years from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2015.

All biomass of live roots. Fine roots of less than 2 mm diameter are often excluded because these often cannot be distinguished empirically from soil organic matter or litter See also ‘Above ground biomass’.

International bilateral resources, provided or received, are transactions undertaken by a donor country directly with a developing country or channeled through a multilateral organisation either in the form of earmarked contributions to a developing country or contributions to specific purpose programmes and funds managed by the organisation. They also encompass transactions with non-governmental organisations active in development.

A term used to describe an area which is experiencing the most evident and dramatic change. Brightspots do not exhibit any signs of degradation, or have been remediated from a degraded state by implementing appropriate remediation activities, or through land planning processes to prevent degradation. See also ‘Hotspots’.

The quantity of carbon in a pool or a reservoir that has the capacity to accumulate or release carbon. Ecosystem carbon pools are composed of biomass (above and below ground), dead wood and litter (above and below ground), and soil organic matter.

The Classification of Environmental Protection Activities (CEPA) is an established international classification since 20001. CEPA 2000 is a generic, multi-purpose, functional classification used for classifying activities, products, expenditure and other transactions related to environmental protection.

System for assigning objects to classes.

Definition used to assign objects to legend classes. NOTE: Classifiers can be algorithmically defined, or defined according to a set of classification system specific rules. See also ‘Classification system’

A commitment is a firm written obligation by a government or official agency, backed by the appropriation or availability of the necessary funds, to provide resources of a specified amount under specified financial terms and conditions and for specified purposes for the benefit of a recipient country or a multilateral agency. Donors unable to comply with this definition should explain the definition that they use.

Core contributions to multilateral institutions are funds classified as multilateral ODA (all other categories fall under bilateral ODA). The recipient multilateral institution pools contributions so that they lose their identity and become an integral part of its financial assets.

The degree of concessionality of a loan is measured by its “grant element”. The grant element is defined as the difference between the loan’s nominal value (face value) and the sum of the discounted future debt-service payments to be made by the borrower (present value), expressed as a percentage of the loan’s face value. Whenever the interest rate charged for a loan is lower than the discount rate, the present value of the debt is smaller than its face value, with the difference reflecting the (positive) grant element of the loan. Grants are wholly concessional by definition. To consult more information on the calculation of the grant element of loans, see OECD DAC Converged Statistical Reporting Directives for the Creditor Reporting System (CRS). In DAC statistics, loans are defined as concessional or non-concessional against specific grant element thresholds, which might change over time.

One of the factors recommended to estimate the infrastructural component of the Drought Vulnerability Index (DVI).The cultivated land that is equipped for irrigation, expressed as a percentage of the total cultivated land. This factor is not valid for the few countries that irrigate pastures. It is calculated by dividing the area equipped for irrigation (which is the area equipped to provide water via irrigation to crops, including full/partial controlled irrigation, equipped lowland areas and areas equipped for spate irrigation) by the cultivated area. This refers to the physical area actually cultivated and does not include land which is temporarily fallow. This factor gives an indication of the short-term coping capacity of the agriculture sector to drought. However, it does not consider if this equipment is in working order, if land is being irrigated or if there is long-term planning on the use of the water resources for irrigation to ensure long-term adaptive capacity. See also ‘Drought Vulnerability Index (DVI)’

For the purpose of UNCCD reporting,, the assessment of a country’s vulnerability to drought as represented by the Drought Vulnerability Index (DVI). See also ‘Drought Vulnerability Index (DVI)’.

A disbursement is the placement of resources at the disposal of a recipient country or agency, or in the case of internal development-related expenditures, the outlay of funds by the official sector. Disbursement may be measured in various ways at different stages of the transfer process. For financial loans and grants, subject to the availability of the necessary records, preference should be given to the stage closest to balance of payments treatment.

Any natural or human-induced factor that directly or indirectly causes a change in an ecosystem

A composite index of drought vulnerability. It is comprised of three components: social, economic and infrastructural, which are each linked to vulnerability. For the purposes of UNCCD reporting, each component can also be an arithmetically derived number consisting of social, economic and infrastructure factors, which are observable or measured variables available as global and/or national datasets.