diff --git a/Source/charon/payloads/encodings.h b/Source/charon/payloads/encodings.h
index f2f6ac282..e085454f8 100644
--- a/Source/charon/payloads/encodings.h
+++ b/Source/charon/payloads/encodings.h
@@ -281,6 +281,11 @@ enum encoding_type_e{
 	ATTRIBUTE_VALUE
 };
 
+/**
+ * mappings to map encoding_type_t's to strings
+ */
+extern mapping_t encoding_type_t_mappings[];
+
 /**
  * An encoding rule is a mapping of a specific encoding type to 
  * a location in the data struct where the current field is stored to