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