…Biodiversity Offsets

A broad con­sen­sus exists among sci­en­tists, politi­cians, busi­nesses and civil soci­ety that bio­di­ver­sity loss is one of the biggest chal­lenges that we are fac­ing. There­fore, actions need to be taken to halt this global loss urgently and imme­di­ately. In this regard the use of new and inno­v­a­tive instru­ments and strate­gies to achieve “no net loss” of bio­di­ver­sity and ecosys­tem ser­vices needs to be exam­ined. In par­tic­u­lar, this refers to the con­cept of bio­di­ver­sity off­sets. Bio­di­ver­sity off­sets seek to com­pen­sate for the unavoid­able, resid­ual impacts to bio­di­ver­sity in order to ensure over­all “no net loss”.

The def­i­n­i­tions and scope of bio­di­ver­sity off­sets are sub­ject to dis­cus­sion both in acad­e­mia and in the pub­lic debate. This includes the fol­low­ing questions:

  • What are bio­di­ver­sity offsets?
  • What (qual­ity) cri­te­ria char­ac­ter­ize  bio­di­ver­sity offsets?
  • Which are the cru­cial and poten­tial weak points for the imple­men­ta­tion of bio­di­ver­sity offsets?
  • How do crit­ics argue on these weak points and what are the risks of bio­di­ver­sity offsets?
  • What are the oppor­tu­ni­ties of bio­di­ver­sity offsets?

I think the dis­cus­sion on bio­di­ver­sity off­sets can’t be closed at some point — at least not yet. We need to deal care­fully and fur­ther refine both the def­i­n­i­tion and the con­cept of bio­di­ver­sity off­sets, to make it widely more under­stand­able under dif­fer­ent con­texts world­wide. You can find a list of all related posts below. If you want to add your point of you, please see here how to do that.

 

Business and Biodiversity session at Conservation Optimism Summit (21st April 2017)

If you’ve been around social media in recent weeks and inter­ested in nature con­ser­va­tion, you prob­a­bly have come across the Con­ser­va­tion Opti­mism Sum­mit (held in Lon­don, 20–22 April 2017). There has been a lot of excite­ment and pos­i­tivism. This, how­ever … Con­tinue read­ing

SHORT INFO: Think Net Positive! — talk by Kerry ten Kate

What’s it about in short: Kerry ten Kate speaks on When was it released: June 21, 2016 By whom: Kerry ten Kate gives a vibrant talk on net pos­i­tive impact on bio­di­ver­sity and bio­di­ver­sity off­sets as part of the mit­i­ga­tion hier­ar­chy … Con­tinue read­ing

SHORT INFO: new paper joining biodiversity offsets and natural capital

What’s it about in short: New paper join­ing bio­di­ver­sity off­sets and nat­ural cap­i­tal When was it released: July 8, 2016 By whom: Joël Houdet, Fabien Quétier, Helen Ding More info: http://naturalcapitalcoalition.org/net-impact-accounting-for-renewable-natural-capital-possible-pathways-for-corporate-level-disclosure/ … Con­tinue read­ing

SHORT INFO: Biodiversity offsets — a balancing act

What’s it about in short: Steve Edwards of IUCN’s Busi­ness and Bio­di­ver­sity Pro­gramme explains how gov­ern­ment and busi­ness are look­ing at ways to com­pen­sate for the impacts of devel­op­ment on bio­di­ver­sity. When was it released: Jan­u­ary 15, 2015 By whom: IUCN More … Con­tinue read­ing

SHORT INFO — Biodiversity offsetting: challenges in theory and practice — talk by Prof EJ Milner-Gulland

What’s it about in short: sem­i­nar and talk by Prof EJ Milner-Gulland on bio­di­ver­sity off­set­ting at Swansea Uni­ver­sity (UK), April 23, 2015 When was it released: April 22, 2015 By whom: Luca Borger More info: http://swantalks.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/biosciences-seminar-speaker-23-april.html … Con­tinue read­ing

What is biodiversity offsetting? simple 5 min-animation explaining the basic principles and functioning

Flora and Fauna Inter­na­tional have pre­pared a short (less than 5 min) ani­ma­tion explain­ing the impact of human con­sump­tion on nature as well as the basic prin­ci­ples and func­tion­ing of bio­di­ver­sity off­sets. The video is sim­ply and nicely illus­trated. To … Con­tinue read­ing

NATUE ALERT — last three days of the public consultation as part of the ‘fitness check’ for EU nature legislation (Birds Directive, Habitats Directive)

For the past three months the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion has held a pub­lic con­sul­ta­tion as part of the ‘fit­ness check’ for EU nature leg­is­la­tion (Birds Direc­tive, Habi­tats Direc­tive — BHD). the BHD and related Natura 2000 net­work are a unique tool … Con­tinue read­ing

Do you think it is pos­si­ble to mea­sure the suc­cess of bio­di­ver­sity offsets? — I need your opinion, please!

Many thanks to all, who have responded to the cur­rent poll so far (77)! As with the last poll, I would like to close it once 100 par­tic­i­pants have been reached. So, please, if you have not yet taken the … Con­tinue read­ing

The legal and institutional dimensions of biodiversity offsetting — a workshop report by Megan Evans

This is a guest post by Megan Evans, a PhD researcher based at the  Fen­ner School of Envi­ron­ment and Soci­ety, at the Aus­tralian National Uni­ver­sity in Can­berra, Aus­tralia. This com­ment has pre­vi­ously been pub­lished on Megan’s Blog. It is the expres­sion of the … Con­tinue read­ing

Compensation for biodiversity losses: can varied approaches deliver? A comment by Carlos Ferreira

This is a guest post by Car­los Fer­reira, Research Assis­tant in the Cen­ter for Busi­ness in Soci­ety at Coven­try Uni­ver­sity. He can be reached at carlos.ferreira@coventry.ac.uk. It is the expres­sion of the author’s thoughts and expe­ri­ences and as such is … Con­tinue read­ing