Strategic Planning for Species Conservation: A Handbook - IUCN

Glossary of terms and abbreviations
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Glossary
Actions The activities which need to be implemented to achieve the
Strategy’s Objectives and, ultimately, its Goals and Vision.
Actors Those individuals responsible for Actions.
Area of Occupancy The Red List term “Area of occupancy” is defined as the area within
its “extent of occurrence” which is occupied by a taxon, excluding
cases of vagrancy. The measure reflects the fact that a taxon will
not usually occur throughout the area of its extent of occurrence,
which may contain unsuitable or unoccupied habitats. In some
cases (e.g., irreplaceable colonial nesting sites, crucial feeding sites
for migratory taxa) the area of occupancy is the smallest area
essential at any stage to the survival of existing populations of a
taxon. The size of the area of occupancy will be a function of the
scale at which it is measured, and should be at a scale appropriate
to relevant biological aspects of the taxon, the nature of threats and
the available data. (For an illustration, see http://
www.iucnredlist.org/info/categories_criteria2001#definitions
accessed 25 July 2008.)
Causal Flow Diagram A graphical technique for describing and analysing real or
hypothesized cause-and-effect relationships.
CBD Convention on Biological Diversity.
CBSG Conservation Breeding Specialist Group of the IUCN Species
Survival Commission.
CEESP Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy of the
IUCN.
CEM Commission on Ecosystem Management of the IUCN.
Constraint Factors which contribute to or compound the threats. For example,
lack of political will and resources might contribute to a lack of law
enforcement, leading in turn to over-exploitation.
Direct threat See “Threat” below.
Extent of Occurrence Red List term used to define the area contained within the shortest
continuous imaginary boundary which can be drawn to encompass
all the known, inferred, or projected sites of present occurrence of a
taxon, excluding cases of vagrancy. This measure may exclude
discontinuities or disjunctions within the overall distributions of taxa
(e.g., large areas of obviously unsuitable habitat; but see “area of
occupancy”). Extent of occurrence can often be measured by a
minimum convex polygon (the smallest polygon in which no internal
angle exceeds 180 degrees and which contains all the sites of
occurrence).
Goal A rephrasing of the Vision in operational terms to capture in greater
detail what needs to be done, and where (to save the species).