Biodiversity Offsets and the Challenge of Achieving No Net Loss |
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Authors: | TOBY A. GARDNER AMREI VON HASE SUSIE BROWNLIE JONATHAN M. M. EKSTROM JOHN D. PILGRIM CONRAD E. SAVY R. T. THEO STEPHENS JO TREWEEK GRAHAM T. USSHER GERRI WARD KERRY TEN KATE |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, , Cambridge, CB2 3EJ United Kingdom;2. International Institute for Sustainability, , Rio de Janeiro, 22460‐320 Brazil;3. Forest Trends, , Washington, DC, 20007 U.S.A.;4. de Villiers Brownlie Associates, , Claremont, 7708 South Africa;5. The Biodiversity Consultancy, , Cambridge, CB2 1SJ United Kingdom;6. Center for Environmental Leadership in Business, Conservation International, , Arlington, VA, 22202 U.S.A.;7. Landcare Research, , Dunedin, New Zealand;8. Treweek Environmental Consultants, , Cullompton, Devon, EX15 2DS United Kingdom;9. Tonkin & Taylor Ltd, , Auckland, 1141 New Zealand;10. Department of Conservation, , Wellington, 6011 New Zealand |
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Abstract: | Businesses, governments, and financial institutions are increasingly adopting a policy of no net loss of biodiversity for development activities. The goal of no net loss is intended to help relieve tension between conservation and development by enabling economic gains to be achieved without concomitant biodiversity losses. biodiversity offsets represent a necessary component of a much broader mitigation strategy for achieving no net loss following prior application of avoidance, minimization, and remediation measures. However, doubts have been raised about the appropriate use of biodiversity offsets. We examined what no net loss means as a desirable conservation outcome and reviewed the conditions that determine whether, and under what circumstances, biodiversity offsets can help achieve such a goal. We propose a conceptual framework to substitute the often ad hoc approaches evident in many biodiversity offset initiatives. The relevance of biodiversity offsets to no net loss rests on 2 fundamental premises. First, offsets are rarely adequate for achieving no net loss of biodiversity alone. Second, some development effects may be too difficult or risky, or even impossible, to offset. To help to deliver no net loss through biodiversity offsets, biodiversity gains must be comparable to losses, be in addition to conservation gains that may have occurred in absence of the offset, and be lasting and protected from risk of failure. Adherence to these conditions requires consideration of the wider landscape context of development and offset activities, timing of offset delivery, measurement of biodiversity, accounting procedures and rule sets used to calculate biodiversity losses and gains and guide offset design, and approaches to managing risk. Adoption of this framework will strengthen the potential for offsets to provide an ecologically defensible mechanism that can help reconcile conservation and development. Balances de Biodiversidad y el Reto de No Obtener Pérdida Neta |
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Keywords: | impact assessment mitigation risk evaluació n de impacto mitigació n riesgo |
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