Biodiversity offsets must address the trade-offs between people and nature: Case study and general principles
Mancini, M; Collins, R; Addicott, E; et al.Balmford, B; Binner, A; Bull, J; Day, B; Eigenbrod, F; zu Ermgassen, S; Faccioli, M; Fezzi, C; Groom, B; Milner-Gulland, EJ; Owen, N; Tingley, D; Wright, E; Bateman, I
Date: 2024
Article
Journal
One Earth
Publisher
Cell Press
Abstract
A basic requirement for global sustainability is to halt the ongoing decline in biodiversity and
wider ecosystem services, yet infrastructure developments such as new housing inevitably
cause environmental impacts. To counteract this, developers are increasingly required to
resource projects which offset those impacts, delivering ...
A basic requirement for global sustainability is to halt the ongoing decline in biodiversity and
wider ecosystem services, yet infrastructure developments such as new housing inevitably
cause environmental impacts. To counteract this, developers are increasingly required to
resource projects which offset those impacts, delivering biodiversity or wider environmental
net gains1
. However, analysis of offsets in England to date show that the large majority are
conducted within development sites rather than being targeted towards far better
opportunities for net gain of either biodiversity or ecosystem services elsewhere2
. Here we
compare current and alternative approaches to offsetting considering the biodiversity gains,
ecosystem service co-benefits and economic costs they generate. Our results confirm that
while current practice is better than nothing, it performs relatively poorly across all criteria.
Analysis shows that by incorporating ecological and economic information into the targeting
of offsets they can provide a significant contribution to addressing the challenge of
biodiversity loss or deliver substantial ecosystem service co-benefits to disadvantaged
communities. The analytical methods and results presented here could support a substantial
improvement in the operation and outcomes of biodiversity offsetting globally.
Economics
Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's licence is described as © 2024. This version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/