About the Biodiversity Offsets Newsweek
If you are interested in environmental compensation and biodiversity offsets, there are certainly good news: there is now a whole bunch of information from different sources, 
locations and viewpoints publicly available (something which wasn’t this easy only a couple of years ago). Now, as has been pointed out (see here) the Biodiversity Offsets Blog aims to compile and somewhat structure this information. But there is not only a wealth of sources already out there on the internet, but also new sources are continuously being added. I am following and collecting the news via Scoop.it and cover the most trending ones in posts on the Biodiversity Offsets Blog. Nevertheless, not all news can be covered (at least not yet) and therefore the “Biodiversity Offsets Newsweek” will list up the headlines of the past week, together with the links and PDFs of the articles or news.
This week: December 1–17, 2014
This week (December 1–7, 2014) another webinar took place, organized by the Business and Biodiversity Offset Program (to benefit from these great resources and receive information and invitations for upcoming webinars, you can participate in BBOP’s Community of Practice). This time, Joe Bull spoke about moving conservation targets and different biodiversity offset methodologies which he applied to a case study in Uzbekistan. In an interesting opinion article, Carlos Ferreira points out, that the majority of consumers haven’t heard of biodiversity offsets because few firms use offsets as a way to manage their image and show consumers that they are environmentally-responsible companies (while many companies acknowledge the potential of offsetting). He concludes that” the reluctance of talking about offsetting to consumers has created a situation where, in Britain at least, biodiversity offsets are more often than not publicly attacked and condemned as a license to trash”. Related to this, there were some more articles on the enduring discussion about natural capital and the value of biodiversity, i.e. with regard to the preservation of ecosystem services and the underlying ecology vs. economy dichotomy. Most interestingly, a newly developed free, open-source, stand-alone software tool to calculate environmental losses and gains was released. Being part of the work of the Natural Capital Project, OPAL (Offset Portfolio Analyzer and Locator) enables users to estimate the impacts of development activities on terrestrial ecosystems and several of the services they provide, and then to select offsets to efficiently mitigate losses. OPAL tracks how people are affected by the environmental impacts of development and mitigation activities. The tool is said to be especially useful for conducting rapid assessments of multiple development projects and offset options. Furthermore, several other articles focus on US and Australian offset examples and on the controversy about environmental restoration in general.
Events on Biodiversity Offsets
BBOP webinar TODAY, December 4, 2014: Moving targets and comparing offset methodologies
My mid-term review – next week, December 4, 2014, by Megan Evans
Biodiversity offsets as business practice?
Opinion Biodiversity Offsets As Corporate Responsibility: Opportunity Or Paradox? December 2, 2014, by Carlos Ferreira
Natural Capital and ecosystem services vs. intrinsic value of nature
Who Owns the Earth? Earth Ecology versus Global Economy, December 2, 2014, by Lesley Docksey
“Désormais, on est incité à protéger la nature parce que sa dégradation a un coût pour les sociétés humaines”, December 1, 2014, by Phillippe Collet
L’idée de rémunérer la préservation des services écosystémiques fait son chemin, December 1, 2014, by Laurent Radisson
OPAL – new free, open-source, stand-alone software tool to calculate environmental losses and gains
Stanford collaboration helps governments offset damage caused by development projects, December 4, 2014, by Rob Jordan (see also here and on the official OPAL website)
Environmental restoration
‘New normal’ approach to conservation comes under fire, December 2, 2014, by Jose Hong
Restoring Biodiversity and Offsetting Carbon, December 1, 2014, by Carbon Neutral Charitable Fund, Youtube video (6:16 min)
Biodiversity offsets in the US
Opinion Solving The Farmer Brown Problem: How The Cost Of Mitigation Credits Can Help The EPA Reach Right Penalty Price, December 5, 2014, by William G. Coleman
Croda seeks Coastal Zone permit for plant work, December 4, 2014, by Jeff Montgomery
Biodiversity offsets in Australia
Have your say on Abbot Point Port and Wetland Project, December 5, 2014, by Jeff Seeney
PDFs of the Articles/Links
To prevent to loose information find the Pdfs of the articles or news below — as we know, that unfortunately every now and then things are being removed from the internet.
Newsweek 1–7 December 2014_Croda seeks Coastal Zone permit for plant work
Newsweek 1–7 December 2014_Have your say on Abbot Point Port and Wetland Project
Newsweek 1–7 December 2014_My mid-term review – next week _ Megan Evans
Newsweek 1–7 December 2014_’New normal’ approach to conservation comes under fire
Newsweek 1–7 December 2014_Who Owns the Earth_ Earth Ecology versus Global Economy