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Project calendar

21-23 MARCH 2017

Final OpenNESS Annual Meeting in Smolenice, Slovakia

OpenNESS Glossary beginning with C


Capacity Building search for term

A process of strengthening or developing human resources, institutions, organisations, or networks. Also referred to as capacity development or capacity enhancement.

Carbon Sequestration search for term


Choice Experiment search for term

A method of valuing goods and services based on their attributes. It is a stated preference technique whereby respondents trade-off different levels of the attributes with payments to reveal the value of changes in the attributes.

Classification System search for term

(for Ecosystem Services) An organised structure for identifying and organising ecosystem services into a coherent scheme.

Coastal System search for term

Systems containing terrestrial areas dominated by ocean influences such as tides and marine aerosols, plus near shore marine areas. The inland extent of coastal ecosystems is the line where land based influences dominate, up to a maximum of 100 kilometres from the coastline or 100-meter elevation (whichever is closer to the sea), and the outward extent is the 50-meter-depth contour.

Community (Ecological) search for term

An assemblage of species occurring in the same space or time, often linked by biotic interactions such as competition or predation.

Community (Human, Local) search for term

A group of people who have something in common. A local community is a fairly small group of people who share a common place of residence and a set of institutions based on this fact, but the word ‘community’ is also used to refer to larger collections of people who have something else in common (e.g., national community, donor community).

Competitiveness search for term

[*] The relative advantage of one place, region or country over another, usually in economic and social terms, but in the context of OpenNESS also in terms of access to natural capital and the benefits derived from ecosystem services.

Conceptual Framework search for term

(for Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity) [*] See 'Framework'

Conservation search for term

The protection, improvement, and sustainable use of natural resources for present and future generations.

Conservation Status search for term

The sum of the influence acting on a habitat and its typical species that may affect its long-term natural distribution, structure and functions as well as the long-term survival of its typical species.

Contingent Valuation search for term


Cost-Benefit Analysis search for term

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

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis search for term


Critical Natural Capital search for term

That set of environmental resources which performs important environmental functions essential to human well-being, and for which no substitutes in terms of human, manufactured or other natural capital currently exist.

Critically Endangered Species search for term

A species which has been categorised by the International Union for Conser-vation of Nature as facing) faces a very high risk of extinction in the wild. It is the highest risk category assigned by the IUCN Red List for wild species.

Cultural Ecosystem Service search for term

All the non-material, and normally non-consumptive, outputs of eco-systems that affect physical and mental states of people. CES are primarily regarded as the physical settings, locations or situations that give rise to changes in the physical or mental states of people, and whose character are fundamentally depen-dent on living processes; they can involve individual species, habitats and whole ecosystems. The settings can be semi-natural as well as natural settings (i.e. can include cultural landscapes) providing they are dependent on in situ living processes. In the classification we make the distinction between settings that support interactions that are used for physical activities such as hiking and angling, and intellectual or mental interactions involving analytical, symbolic and representational activities. Spiritual and religious settings are also recognised. The classification also covers the ‘existence’ and ‘bequest’ constructs that may arise from people’s beliefs or understandings.

Cultural Landscape search for term

See 'Landscape'

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