Supporting Scotland's transition - land use and agriculture: consultation

Key terms

For a more extensive set of key term definitions, please refer to the Technical Supporting Document.

Adaptation - A process of making adjustments in response to climate change impacts. This includes being prepared for the risks posed by climate change and identifying new opportunities that our changing climate may bring.

Biodiversity - The variety of life on earth in all its forms, essential for sustaining the ecosystems that provide us with food, fuel, health, wealth, and other vital services.

Carbon audit - A carbon audit can help businesses find ways to lower emissions whilst improving efficiency and profitability, e.g. by measuring how much fertiliser, animal feed or fuel for machinery is used on a farm.

Carbon footprint - A measurement of the total greenhouse gases (GHGs) produced directly or indirectly by an organisation, person, product or service.

Carbon sink - Something or somewhere that collects and stores carbon for an indefinite period, such as forests, oceans, or soil.

Circular economy - Aims to reduce the demand for raw materials in products, and to encourage reuse and repair, by designing products that last as long as possible.

Climate resilience - The ability to anticipate, prepare for, and respond to hazardous events, trends, or disturbances related to climate.

Co-development - The process of developing something new together with one or more other people or organisations.

Community ownership - When a community buys land, buildings or other assets in the place where they live, helping to ensure that any profits stay in the local area and allowing the community to decide what they want to see happen locally.

Diversity - Recognising, respecting and celebrating each other’s differences. A diverse environment is one with a wide range of backgrounds and mindsets.

Ecosystem services - The benefits humans obtain from ecosystems, including provisioning services like food and water, regulating services like climate control, supporting services like nutrient cycling, and cultural services like recreation.

Empowered - Make (someone) stronger and more confident, especially in controlling
their life and claiming their rights.

Equality - Means treating people fairly and giving people the same choices and chances.

Equity - Recognises that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome

Framework - A system of rules, ideas, or beliefs that is used to plan or decide something.

Governance - The way that organisations or countries are managed at the highest level, and the systems for doing this.

Green economy - An economy that can be considered to be low in carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive.

Greenhouse gases - Gases which absorb infrared radiation emitted from the surface of the Earth, (e.g. carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide), helping to trap some of that energy in the atmosphere as heat.

Integrated - When many different parts are closely connected and work successfully together.

Just Transition Commission - An independent commission that provides scrutiny and advice on how to put justice at the heart of climate action in Scotland.

Land based skills - Traditionally those relating to farming and industries connected to the land and environment, including horticulture, food production, forestry, conservation, landscaping, fisheries management, animal care, game and wildlife management and equine (horses).

Land use - The human use of land through economic and cultural activities, (e.g. agricultural, residential, industrial, mining, and recreational uses).

Mitigate - To make (something bad) less severe, serious, or painful.

Monitoring and evaluation - Monitoring is the ongoing process of regularly collecting and analysing relevant information to make sure you are doing what you set out to do. Evaluation is when you assess whether what you have been doing is really making the difference that you intended it to.

Natural Capital - The renewable and non-renewable stocks of natural assets, including geology, soil, air, water and plants and animals that combine to provide a flow of benefits to people.

Nature-based solutions - Actions to protect, sustainably manage and restore ecosystems in ways that address societal challenges to provide both human well-being and biodiversity benefits.

Nature network - Connects nature-rich sites, restoration areas, and other environental projects through a series of areas or corridors of suitable habitat.

Nature positive - Means reversing the downward curve of biodiversity loss so that levels of biodiversity are once again increasing.

Nature restoration - Assisting the recovery of ecosystems that have been degraded or destroyed, as well as conserving ecosystems that are still intact.

Net Zero - The balance between the amount of greenhouse gas produced and the amount removed from the atmosphere. We reach net zero when the amount we add is no more than the amount taken away.

Participatory - A participatory approach means that the person in charge of solving a problem or designing an innovation involves people who are directly concerned by the result of their work.

Peatland - Wetland areas with a thick, water-logged organic soil layer (peat) composed mainly of dead and decaying plant material, which store large amounts of carbon.

Peatlands (healthy) - have lower greenhouse gas emissions and absorb carbon at a higher rate than peatlands in poor condition. They provide many additional benefits including wildlife habitat, absorbing pollutants, reducing the carbon content in water and regulating run-off and base flows in upland streams.

Peer-to-peer learning - A mutual learning and training strategy that involves participants of the same level learning in a collaborative way. At its simplest, it is when one or more learners teach other learners.

Planetary boundaries - The safe limits for human pressure on nine critical processes which together maintain a stable and resilient Earth. These are: biosphere integrity; climate change; land-system change; freshwater change; nutrient cycles; ocean acidification; aerosol pollution; ozone; and ‘novel entities’ (which includes pollutants like plastic).

Regenerative agriculture - A collection of farming practices that focus on renewing and conserving soils, landscapes and ecosystems. They support nature and social justice in rural communities, alongside agricultural production.

Reskilling /upskilling - The process of learning new skills so you can do a different job, or training people to do a different job.

Revenue funding vs capital funding - Revenue funding is money spent by organisations to maintain their everyday operations, e.g. putting on events, performances and activities, paying for running costs or paying for trips and excursions. Capital funding is money spent by an organisation to acquire assets or to improve the quality of existing ones and is usually incurred for the long term.

Stakeholders - Those with an interest in an issue, e.g. investors, policy makers, businesses, employees, local communities, individuals, customers, and suppliers.

Sustainable - A ‘sustainable’ plan, method, or system is designed to continue at the same rate or level of activity without any problems. When talking about environmental issues, ‘sustainable’ describes the use of natural resources when this use is kept at a steady level that is not likely to damage the environment.

Wellbeing - Is the state of feeling healthy and happy. It encompasses quality of life, as well as the ability of people and societies to contribute to the world in accordance with a sense of meaning and purpose.