New Poll: Do you think it is pos­si­ble to mea­sure the suc­cess of bio­di­ver­sity offsets?

As I have recently  sug­gested, I am launch­ing a new poll on the Bio­di­ver­sity Off­sets Blog. Thanks to all who have con­tributed to shap­ing this in the related LinkedIn dis­cus­sion. As a result the OUTCOME or SUCCESS of bio­di­ver­sity off­sets have … Con­tinue read­ing

Marine and terrestrial biodiversity offsets: so close and yet so far away — a comment by Céline Jacob

This is a guest post by Céline Jacob, PhD Stu­dent on Marine and Coastal Bio­di­ver­sity Off­sets at CREOCEAN — Cen­ter for Func­tional and Evo­lu­tion­ary Ecol­ogy in Mont­pel­lier (France). This com­ment is the expres­sion of the author’s thoughts and expe­ri­ences and … Con­tinue read­ing

The theory-practice gap in biodiversity offsets — a comment by Alan Key

This is a guest post by Alan Key from Aus­tralian con­sul­tancy Earth­trade. This com­ment is the expres­sion of the author’s thoughts and expe­ri­ences and such is acknowl­edged as a fruit­ful con­tri­bu­tion to the dis­cus­sion on bio­di­ver­sity off­sets. If you want … Con­tinue read­ing

Biodiversity offsets are bad — picture collection

Pic­tures say more than words — and some of these are really mean. Does bio­di­ver­ity off­set­ting work this way? Crit­ics would say: yes, bio­di­ver­sity off­sets are bad. Any­way, the draw­ings point to some of the core prob­lems of bio­di­ver­sity off­sets … Con­tinue read­ing

Love or Leave? The controversy about Biodiversity Offsets

No to Bio­di­ver­sity Off­set­ting? As bio­di­ver­sity off­sets become more vis­i­ble in the pub­lic they are sub­ject to a grow­ing con­tro­versy. Crit­ics of bio­di­ver­sity off­sets have a grow­ing lobby, espe­cially in the UK, where the gov­ern­ment seems to rush, want­ing to … Con­tinue read­ing

Biodiversity Offsets need a strong regulatory system! Or voluntary engagement?

Bio­di­ver­sity Off­sets under reg­u­la­tory sys­tems A decade ago off­sets only existed under sev­eral reg­u­la­tory sys­tems e.g. Envi­ron­men­tal Impact Assess­ment, US Wet­land Mit­i­ga­tion, Ger­man Impact Mit­i­ga­tion Reg­u­la­tion and other (see table below for some selected more). The busi­ness case and vol­un­tary … Con­tinue read­ing

Why did the concept of Biodiversity Offsets become so popular?

“Bio­di­ver­sity” is a buzz­word (and “Bio­di­ver­sity Off­set” is becom­ing one) One rea­son for the pop­u­lar­ity of bio­di­ver­sity off­sets is inher­ent to the term itself: “bio­di­ver­sity” is prob­a­bly one of the most promi­nent buzz­words of the 21st cen­tury (after “sus­tain­abil­ity” at the … Con­tinue read­ing

Brief definition of Biodiversity Offsets

Def­i­n­i­tion of Bio­di­ver­sity Off­sets Bio­di­ver­sity Off­sets are defined as “mea­sur­able con­ser­va­tion out­comes result­ing from actions designed to com­pen­sate for sig­nif­i­cant resid­ual adverse bio­di­ver­sity impacts aris­ing from project devel­op­ment after appro­pri­ate pre­ven­tion and mit­i­ga­tion mea­sures have been taken”. [BBOP 2009]