Biodiversity Offsets and No Net Loss: Introduction, Problem Statement, and Research Questions

Abstract

In light of ongoing global biodiversity loss, there is an increasing need for restoration-based activities to complement conventional nature conservation activities. Building on this premise, the paradigm of “no net loss” has risen to prominence in a worldwide context and particularly with respect to EU policy. In this scope, biodiversity offsets are increasingly explored and promoted to reach the no net loss goal.

Biodiversity offsets are the last step of a sequence called the “Mitigation Hierarchy” (first avoid, then minimize, and then finally restore/offset negative impacts). They are understood as “measurable conservation outcomes” that are designed to counterbalance the “significant residual adverse biodiversity impacts” from planned projects or developments, e.g., infrastructure, housing, or land-use change. Thus, offsets imply an exchange of a biodiversity loss in one location for a biodiversity gain in another location.

While biodiversity offsets have risen from regulatory requirements in a number of countries, their increasing popularity is mainly bound to a new trend toward the promotion of voluntary biodiversity offsets, which has started in the early 2000s.

Building on the growing controversy about voluntary vs. regulatory biodiversity offsets, and the complexity and context dependency of their implementation, this study attempts to develop a refined typology with regard to the voluntariness of biodiversity offsets. This shall provide the basis for an informed debate in light of a differentiated critical analysis of biodiversity offsets, the different options as to how they can be delivered in practice, and their outcomes.