Abbreviations
CBD –Convention on Biological Diversity
CIAT – International Centre for Tropical Agriculture
COP- Conference of the Parties
FAO – Food and Agriculture Organisation
ICCP - Intergovernmental Committee for the Catagena Protocol on Biosafety
SBSTTA - Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice
TSBF – Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Institute of CIAT
UNESCO – United Nations Cultural Scientific Organisation
WGRI - Working Group on the Review of the Implementation
WHO – World Health Organisation
Scientific Terms
Clay – materials derived from rock minerals, mainly made from silicon, aluminium, magnesium
Compaction – process by which soil structure is altered by compression resulting loss of pore space
Ecosystem: a description of all the organisms living and how they interact with one another and with non-living parts in a particular environment.
Endosymbionts – an organism which form a symbiotic relationship inside another
Gene – basic unit of heredity, sequence of nucleotides which give a function e.g. code for a specific polypeptide or involved in regulation of other genes
Genotype – genetic information of an organism
Habitat – location where an organism live
Organic matter – material made from carbon from biological origin
pH- a measure of the concentration of H+ ions; acidity or alakalinity.
Polymer – larger molecule made up from repeating unit of smaller molecules
Salinisation - the accumulation of soluble salts of sodium, magnesium and calcium in soil to the extent that soil fertility is severely reduced
Saphrophyte – an organism which gains its nourishment from dead or decaying organic matter
Soil erosion - removal of soil by natural causes such as wind, water