Biodiversity offsets in theory and practice

Abstract

Biodiversity offsets are an increasingly popular yet controversial tool in conservation. Their popularity lies in their potential to meet the objectives of biodiversity conservation and of economic development in tandem; the controversy lies in the need to accept ecological losses in return for uncertain gains. The offsetting approach is being widely adopted, even though its methodologies and the overriding conceptual framework are still under development. This review of biodiversity offsetting evaluates implementation to date and synthesizes outstanding theoretical and practical problems. We begin by outlining the criteria that make biodiversity offsets unique and then explore the suite of conceptual challenges arising from these criteria and indicate potential design solutions. We find that biodiversity offset schemes have been inconsistent in meeting conservation objectives because of the challenge of ensuring full compliance and effective monitoring and because of conceptual flaws in the approach itself. Evidence to support this conclusion comes primarily from developed countries, although offsets are increasingly being implemented in the developing world. We are at a critical stage: biodiversity offsets risk becoming responses to immediate development and conservation needs without an overriding conceptual framework to provide guidance and evaluation criteria. We clarify the meaning of the term biodiversity offset and propose a framework that integrates the consideration of theoretical and practical challenges in the offset process. We also propose a research agenda for specific topics around metrics, baselines and uncertainty.

Interactions Between Biodiversity Offsets and Protected Area Commitments: Avoiding Perverse Outcomes

“…The conceptual basis of offsets sets them apart from other types of conservation tools in ways that are not intuitive (Bull et al 2013). They are not the standard conservation activity where the foremost objective is to maximize benefits for biodiversity, nor are they a "payment for ecosystem services" (PES) scheme, which provides payments to landowners to avoid certain land uses such as logging or converting natural ecosystems to intensive land uses.…”

Conservation: Stop misuse of biodiversity offsets

“…To focus priorities, ecologists have proposed classes of 'essential biodiversity variables' -including species traits and populations, and ecosystem function and structure 1 . But measuring these on the ground is laborious and limited.…”

“…iodiversity offsetting involves trying to compensate for the damage to species and habitats caused by development such as expanding cities, constructing mines and building dams, by creating an 'ecologically equivalent' benefit elsewhere 1 . For instance, since 2008, the French construction company Oc'via and its partners have invested millions of euros to manage around 1,700 hectares of farmland in southern France to improve the habitat of little bustards (Tetrax tetrax).…”

The cost and feasibility of marine coastal restoration

“…Ecosystem restoration is also crucial for emerging ecological offset policies, where impacts of development causing biodiversity and ecosystem services loss at one site are compensated for by conservation and restoration activities at another offset site (Madsen et al 2010, Bull et al 2013. Research on restoration has mainly focused on terrestrial, rather than on marine coastal ecosystems ) and the monetary value of the ecosystem services (de Groot et al 2012).…”