Aligning ecological compensation policies with the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework to achieve real net gain in biodiversity

Abstract

Increasingly, government and corporate policies on ecological compensation (e.g. offsetting) are requiring ‘net gain’ outcomes for biodiversity. This presents an opportunity to align development with the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework’s (GBF) ambition for overall biodiversity recovery. In this perspective, we describe three conditions that should be accounted for in establishing or revising net gain policies to align their outcomes with the Post-2020 GBF: namely, a requirement for residual losses from development to be compensated for by (1) absolute gains, which are (2) scaled to the achievement of explicit biodiversity targets, where (3) gains are ecologically feasible. We show that few current policies meet these conditions, and thus we demonstrate a major disconnect between existing biodiversity net gain approaches and the achievement of the Post-2020 GBF milestones and goals. We conclude by describing how this gap can be bridged through a novel ecological compensation framework.

Are corporate biodiversity commitments consistent with delivering ‘nature-positive’ outcomes? A review of ‘nature-positive’ definitions, company progress and challenges

“…Aligning with broader societal targets for nature recovery will require an increase in the ambition of company biodiversity strategies, beyond merely compensating for impacts and towards delivering active biodiversity improvements in line with global biodiversity goals (Locke et al, 2021). This implies increases in nature relative to a static baseline, rather than the declining counterfactual that is often embedded in biodiversity compensation frameworks such as biodiversity offsetting (Milner-Gulland, in press;Simmonds et al, 2022). Increases in the ambition of targets need to be accompanied with increases in the measurability and reporting of organisational biodiversity progress to ensure public accountability of progress towards overarching goals (Addison et al, 2019;Milner-Gulland, in press).…”

“…Increases in the ambition of targets need to be accompanied with increases in the measurability and reporting of organisational biodiversity progress to ensure public accountability of progress towards overarching goals (Addison et al, 2019;Milner-Gulland, in press). Simmonds et al (2022) highlight criteria for biodiversity impact compensation to deliver outcomes aligned with global biodiversity goals: biodiversity gains need to be absolute and not relative to a declining baseline; scaled with consideration to the overall target; and feasible both ecologically and from a social and governance perspective. Previous corporate NNL goals have often been assessed against a declining counterfactual where biodiversity loss would be more intense in the absence of the company's intervention.…”