In the past decades, debates on agriculture, land use and management of natural resources have coined a wealth of new terms. In many cases, these are in full vogue for just a period, replace older ones or are used for political reasons. Meanwhile, there are so many terms that it is difficult to keep track and distinguish them from each other.

This annotated glossary offers a unitary and coherent use of key notions from the BMZ (Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development) and implementing agencies and works towards a universal agreement on their use with partners and agents. Its aim is to distinguish terms in the field of combating desertification and sustainable land management from each other, to reveal cohesions and hierarchies between them and trace their development. The glossary in German and English language contains a selection of the most commonly used terms while raising no claim to completeness. If necessary, it can always be supplemented with further items.For most terms, there are several definitions, often differing only slightly.

The differences fre-quently originate in the interests and priorities of institutions and organisations. For this rea-son, even common definitions are adjusted to new conditions and challenges from time to time. In most cases, the authors selected more than one definition, concentrating on univer-sally recognised definitions by leading institutions and those stressing different aspects of a term. For every definition, the source and, when possible, a hyperlink, are provided allowing citation, verification and further reading. Please bear in mind that due to occasional updating of websites, it is possible that some links will no longer be active when the glossary has been published and distributed.