Author(s): Mar­tine Maron and James Watson

Title: Off­set­ting Bio­di­ver­sity: Green­ing or Greenwashing?

Year: 2015

Pages: -

Pub­li­ca­tion type: open access article

Lan­guage: English

Source: http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/22/offsetting-biodiversity-greening-or-greenwashing/

Abstract:

Off­sets could have an impor­tant place in the con­ser­va­tion tool­box, but only with scrupu­lously designed pol­icy to avoid giv­ing nations – espe­cially wealthy ones – a way to avoid fund­ing pre­vi­ous com­mit­ments to pro­tect biodiversity.

The emer­gence of bio­di­ver­sity off­sets as a main­stream con­ser­va­tion tool means that a focus on con­ser­va­tion ‘wins’ – with­out con­sid­er­ing the losses – is riskier than ever. Off­set­ting unavoid­able dam­age from devel­op­ment is an essen­tial part of efforts to stem the bio­di­ver­sity cri­sis. But the role off­sets play in our con­ser­va­tion pol­icy mix must be care­fully scru­ti­nized to avoid per­verse out­comes for biodiversity.