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Twenty-eighth Report Adapting Institutions to Climate Change Cm ...

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Appendix A<br />

(Taken from Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2006). Guidance for Promoting Synerg y<br />

Among activities Addressing Biological Diversity, Desertification, Land Degradation and <strong>Climate</strong> <strong>Change</strong>. Montreal,<br />

Technical Series no. 25.)<br />

Resilience is the ability of an ecosystem <strong>to</strong> maintain its functions after being perturbed. A measure of<br />

resilience is the magnitude of disturbance required <strong>to</strong> move an ecosystem irreversibly <strong>to</strong> an alternative<br />

state. Resilience decreases an ecosystem’s sensitivity (c.f. alternative definition above). (Taken from<br />

Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2006). Guidance for Promoting Synerg y Among activities<br />

Addressing Biological Diversity, Desertification, Land Degradation and <strong>Climate</strong> <strong>Change</strong>. Montreal, Technical<br />

Series no. 25.)<br />

Resilience is the capacity of a system <strong>to</strong> absorb disturbance and reorganise while undergoing change so<br />

as <strong>to</strong> still retain essentially the same function, structure, identity and feedbacks. (Taken from Holling et<br />

al. (2004) Ecolog y and Society 9(2), 5.)<br />

Resistance describes the capacity of an ecosystem <strong>to</strong> persist unchanged despite environmental change.<br />

Resistance decreases an ecosystem’s sensitivity. (Taken from Secretariat of the Convention on Biological<br />

Diversity (2006). Guidance for Promoting Synerg y Among activities Addressing Biological Diversity, Desertification,<br />

Land Degradation and <strong>Climate</strong> <strong>Change</strong>. Montreal, Technical Series no. 25.)<br />

Sensitivity measures the magnitude and rate of response in proportion <strong>to</strong> the magnitude and rate<br />

of climate change. Ecosystems will be particularly sensitive <strong>to</strong> changes in climate variability and the<br />

frequency and magnitude of extreme events. (Taken from Secretariat of the Convention on Biological<br />

Diversity (2006). Guidance for Promoting Synerg y Among activities Addressing Biological Diversity, Desertification,<br />

Land Degradation and <strong>Climate</strong> <strong>Change</strong>. Montreal, Technical Series no. 25.))<br />

Transformability is the capacity <strong>to</strong> create a fundamentally new system when ecological, economic,<br />

or social (including political) conditions make the existing system untenable. (Taken from Holling et<br />

al.(2004). Ecolog y and Society, 9(2), 5.)<br />

Vulnerability measures an ecosystem’s exposure <strong>to</strong> and sensitivity <strong>to</strong> climate change. Vulnerability<br />

is determined at specific spatial and temporal scales and is a dynamic property dependent on local<br />

conditions; for example, a forest during the dry season (c.f. alternative definition above). (Taken from<br />

Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2006). Guidance for Promoting Synerg y Among activities<br />

Addressing Biological Diversity, Desertification, Land Degradation and <strong>Climate</strong> <strong>Change</strong>. Montreal, Technical<br />

Series no. 25.)<br />

140

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