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]

Con­text of Bio­di­ver­sity Offsets

• Com­pen­sa­tion approaches for impacts on bio­log­i­cal diver­sity exist in numer­ous coun­tries worldwide.[Darbi et al. 2009]
• Lia­bil­ity for dam­ages is stip­u­lated under var­i­ous sec­toral laws, e.g. envi­ron­ment, min­ing, forests, waste and water.
• The “Pol­luter Pays Prin­ci­ple” is widely rec­og­nized. Accord­ing to this, gen­er­ally the project pro­po­nent is liable for the dam­ages caused by a devel­op­ment, and has there­fore to put in place appro­pri­ate com­pen­sa­tion mea­sures. [Darbi 2010a]

How­ever, the sit­u­a­tion on the ground is very het­ero­ge­neous and a vari­ety of terms exists. For­mer research on this issue [cf. Darbi et al. 2009] has shown that in a global con­text the term “com­pen­sa­tion” is mis­lead­ing as it is often used for finan­cial com­pen­sa­tion for social inequal­i­ties rather than for envi­ron­men­tal degra­da­tion. More and more “envi­ron­men­tal / bio­di­ver­sity off­sets” are becom­ing the dom­i­nat­ing term (in the last few years this has in par­tic­u­lar been fos­tered by the Busi­ness and Bio­di­ver­sity Off­sets Program).

Con­cept of Bio­di­ver­sity Offsets

The con­cept of bio­di­ver­sity off­sets means that neg­a­tive impacts on bio­log­i­cal diver­sity need to be com­pen­sated or coun­ter­bal­anced by con­ser­va­tion or restora­tion mea­sures in order to ensure “No Net Loss” of bio­di­ver­sity (see Fig­ure 1).

“Bio­di­ver­sity Off­sets are con­ser­va­tion activ­i­ties intended to com­pen­sate for the resid­ual, unavoid­able harm to bio­di­ver­sity caused by devel­op­ment projects” [ten Kate et al. 2004] “Bio­di­ver­sity off­sets seek to ensure that unavoid­able adverse envi­ron­men­tal impacts of devel­op­ment are coun­ter­bal­anced by envi­ron­men­tal gains” [Escor­cio Bez­erra 2007] “A bio­di­ver­sity Off­set is a piece of land that is set aside from devel­op­ment to main­tain its bio­di­ver­sity val­ues and thereby off­set the effects of devel­op­ment on bio­di­ver­sity val­ues else­where.” [Howard 2007]

Fig­ure 1: Def­i­n­i­tions of Bio­di­ver­sity Offsets

Bio­di­ver­sity Off­sets within the Mit­i­ga­tion Hierarchy

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”. This hier­ar­chi­cal pro­ce­dure is called the “Mit­i­ga­tion Hier­ar­chy” (see Fig­ure 2). The goal of bio­di­ver­sity off­sets is to achieve no net loss and prefer­ably a net gain of bio­di­ver­sity on the ground with respect to species com­po­si­tion, habi­tat struc­ture, ecosys­tem func­tion and people’s use and cul­tural val­ues asso­ci­ated with bio­di­ver­sity [BBOP 2009].

Fig­ure 2: The Mit­i­ga­tion Hierarchy

 Ref­er­ences

BBOP (2009) Busi­ness, Bio­di­ver­sity Off­sets and BBOP: An Overview. http://www.forest-trends.org/biodiversityoffsetprogram/guidelines/overview.pdf

Darbi, M (2010a): Bio­di­ver­sity Off­sets – a tool for envi­ron­men­tal man­age­ment and bio­di­ver­sity con­ser­va­tion. In: In: Sanchez Ben­goa, D.; Pow­ell, D. (Eds.) : TOP Bio­di­ver­sity 2010. Intercollege-Larnaca, Cyprus. Con­fer­ence Pro­ceed­ings. Lar­naca : Intercollege-Larnaca, 2010, S.289–301.

Darbi, M.; Ohlen­burg, H.; Her­berg, A.; Wende, W., Skam­bracks, D. & Her­bert, M. (2009), Inter­na­tional Approaches to Com­pen­sa­tion for Impacts on Bio­log­i­cal Diver­sity. Final Report. Im Inter­net: http://www.forest-trends.org/biodiversityoffsetprogram/library/new/Bio-kom_Final %20Report_IOER_TUB.pdf.

Escor­cio Bez­erra, L G (2007): Bio­di­ver­sity Off­sets in National (Brazil) and Regional (EU) Manda­tory Arrange­ments: Towards an Inter­na­tional Regime? http://www.forest-trends.org/biodiversityoffsetprogram/library/new/Dissertation%20Biodiversity%20Offsets%20LGB%20IUCN%20BBOP.doc

Howard, K (2007): Vol­un­tary Bio­di­ver­sity Off­sets: Improv­ing the envi­ron­men­tal man­age­ment tool­box. Im Inter­net: http://www.cortex.org/d-Cortex-%20Biodiversity%20Offsets_01Dec 07.pdf

ten Kate et al. (2004) (ten Kate, K; Bishop, J and Bayon, R): Bio­di­ver­sity off­sets: Views, expe­ri­ence, and the busi­ness case. IUCN, Gland, Switzer­land and Cam­bridge, UK and Insight Invest­ment, Lon­don, UK