Environmental Compensation and the Mediation of Environmental Change: Making Capital out of Cardiff Bay

Abstract

The scope for compensating for environmental loss or degradation with some form of balancing environmental gain (such as habitat creation) has attracted critical attention from conservationists and policy makers. However, it is increasingly apparent that concentrating on technical skills, and adopting a linear analytical framework, disguise the range of social processes at work. Engaging in environmental compensation is, almost inevitably, a process of considerable ecological, evaluative and institutional transformation. Moreover, taking increasing control of this process through detailed management may accelerate the transformation of nature into 'capital'. These arguments are developed through a case-study of Cardiff Bay, where the implementation of habitat creation compensating for the loss of inter-tidal mud flats became linked to the implementation of the European Habitats Directive, a policy lever which served to both intensify and rationalize these transformations.

Protest responses and community attitudes toward accepting compensation to host waste disposal infrastructure

“…The value of an Irish study in a European and international context lies firstly in generating information concerning extraordinarily virulent public opposition to the siting of necessary public infrastructure. Secondly, while legislative and administrative frameworks exist within individual U.S. states, Germany and some other European statutory planning systems (Cowell, 1997(Cowell, , 2000Kuiper, 1997;Wilding and Raemaekers, 2000;Rundcrantz and Skärbäck, 2003) differences exist in how this redistribution of costs and benefits is typically implemented in European countries relative to the U.S. The U.S. has a better developed compensation framework, and as such, more experience to draw from when determining compensation policy.…”

Compensation in Swedish infrastructure projects and suggestions on policy improvements

“…This may not be so surprising, given that it is essentially based on the polluter-pays principle and the idea that people should make amends for their actions (Persson 2013). It may be defined as the provision of positive environmental measures to correct, balance or otherwise atone for the loss of environmental resources (Cowell 2000). Today, environmental compensation is established across the world both in legislation and in voluntary commitments by companies and local authorities (Rainey et al 2014).…”

Trade-offs at a regional level in spatial planning: Two case studies as a source of inspiration

“…How can one assess nature and environmental values and how are they to be compared? In the Cardiff Bay the implementation of habitat creation compensating for the loss of inter-tidal mud flats became linked to the implementation of the European Habitats Directive (Cowell, 2000). A recent study in the Netherlands also shows several difficulties in upholding the compensatory principle.…”