Biodiversty offsets are being debated in the United Kingdom as a useful tool for stopping biodiversity loss (the so called no-net-loss target). Rob Calvert, a policy intern at the British Ecological Society (BES), recently contributed to the debate through an article in the Bulletin of the BES, which also brought professional ecologists on board. The bulletin is only available to subscribers so here is a short summary and review.
Mr. Calvert explains how the goal of offsets is to achieve no-net-loss through “measurable conservation outcomes resulting from actions designed to compensate for significant residual adverse biodiversity impacts arising from development plans or projects after appropriate prevention and mitigation measures have been taken”. This is the definition by BBOP (Business and Biodiversity Offsets Program*). After giving foreign examples of offset policies, he details the advantages of pooling offsets from different impacts in order to obtain additional biodiversity gains through larger areas or interconnections.
He then goes on to list the concerns raised by the prospect of biodiversity offsets
Concerning the policy itself, Mr. Calvert refers to a scoping study by DEFRA that mentions the following key difficulties:
There are of course exciting opportunities in developing an offset policy in the UK. These include
According to Mr. Calvert, British legislation and policy tools are already adapted to the setting up of offset schemes, with
Among the many fora in which offsets are being discussed, Mr. Calvert mentions those of the Natural Capital Initiative towards no net loss.
*: BBOP recently put on-line a report on policy options for setting up offset schemes (pdf here).
The British Ecological Society has included biodiversity offsets in its recommendations to DEFRA. See their report here : http://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/documents/policy_documents/consultation_responses/FINAL_RESPONSE_BES_DEFRA_WHITE_PAPER_291010.pdf
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BBOP made comments on DEFRA’s proposal for biodiversity offsets in the UK. You can find iti here : http://bbop.forest-trends.org/activities/policy/Defra-comments_Jan-2011.pdf