Reconciling conservation and development…..
Asha [email protected]
Senior Reader and Faculty In-charge, EIA Cell,
Wildlife institute of India, Dehradun
The concept of biodiversity offsets
IAIA ’06 Pre-meeting training course - Stavanger, Norway
What are biodiversity offsets?
“Conservation actions intended to compensate for the residual,
unavoidable harm to biodiversity caused by development
projects, so as to ensure no net loss of biodiversity"
(ten Kate, K., Bishop, J., and Bayon, R. (2004)
Definitions
“One or more appropriate actions that are put in place to counterbalance
(offset) the impacts of development on biodiversity”
Department of Environment and Conservation, NSW, 2005
“A form of mitigation used to address net biodiversity
loss after all other mitigation measures have been
taken" (EBI, 2003)
Biodiversity
breakeven point
No net loss for biodiversity
Net positive output
for biodiversity
+
-
(Zero impact)
Anticipated
impacts
Residual
impacts
Avoided
impacts
Mitigated
impacts
Avoided
impacts
Impact
offset
Mitigated
impacts
Avoided
impacts
Positive contributions
to biodiversity
Size of offset
Residual
impacts
Contributions through market solutions
(trading and financing biodiversity
conservation )
Modified from EBI, 2005
Why develop biodiversity offsets?
Biodiversity is an essential heritage for all man kind.
Conservation of biodiversity is an environmental objective,
sustainable use of biological resources is an economic
objective, and equitable sharing of biodiversity benefits is an
social objective.
Development of biodiversity offset is an approach to
incorporate sustainability assurances in business, finance
and development
Benefits of biodiversity offsets
Better balancing of costs and benefits of conservation and economic
developments
Opportunities for national governments to fulfil commitments under
Millennium development goals and Convention on Biodiversity
A mechanism to reconcile conservation into development
planning and biodiversity into the investment plans
More incentives to promote in situ conservation initiatives and
better conservation outcomes
Focussing on high biodiversity value habitat and conservation
priorities instead of highly compromised sites
License to operate, new market opportunities and competitive
advantages
For governments
For developers
For conservation communities
New approach for financing conservation and achieving
greater economic value for biodiversity
For resource economists
For environmental groups
Ethical environmental stewardship
For communities
Ensuring the benefits of functioning and productive
ecosystems and support to livelihood and better
amenities
Ground rules for developing biodiversity offsets
Offsets are no substitute for “no go” areas
Offsets are not a project negotiation tool
Offsets follow the principle of ‘like for like or
better’
Biodiversity offsets should follow the mitigation
hierarchy
The environmental impact should be first avoided,
then minimized and finally compensated for or
offset
Avoid
Minimize
Mitigate
Compensate
Mitigation hierarchy
Offset
Biodiversity offset should represent a conservation
benefit that would not be possible without the investment
companies contribution
Offsets must not reward on going poor environmental
performance
Offsets must result in a net environmental improvement
Conservation offsets should be consistent with national
and local conservation and development priorities.
Offsets must have local context and must be sensitive to
indigenous people’s rights
Strengthening ineffective PAs: Improving the conservation status of
certain neglected zone in a forest reserve by replanting degraded
areas.
Safeguarding unprotected areas: Entering into agreements with local
communities.
Addressing underlying causes of biodiversity loss: Working with
communities to address livelihood needs to support alternative
livelihood to stop unsustainable activities.
Types of Offset activities
more…..
Establishing corridors: Identifying and securing the conservation
management of land that provides biological corridors between
PAs.
Establishing buffer zones around PAs lacking a buffer.
Securing migration paths.
Enhancing habitat on private land to improve its biodiversity
value.
Acquiring land that contains very high conservation values
through open land markets.
Market mechanisms for biodiversity conservation
Purchase of high value habitat (land acquisition by buyers
and government agencies for explicitly for biodiversity
conservation)
Direct payments for access to species or habitat
(bioprospecting; permits for visit, collection of specimen and
research data; recreation)
Payments for conservation and management of biodiversity
(on private, public lands, grazing lands, forests and wildlife
areas)
Trading rights and credits (operating through contributions
represented by biodiversity credits and conservation
banking)
more…
Supporting biodiversity conserving business ( Business shares
in enterprises and promoting biofriendly products)
Insurance and financing for mitigating impact risk (funds and
enviro bonds)
Mobilizing and organizing buyers and sellers for biodiversities
values and ecosystem services
Creating market for biodiversity conservation
Ecological value added tax
How to offset?
How to devise appropriate offsets that are acceptable and link to
business impacts on biodiversity ?
Areas of uncertainty
Technical issues
Time Site Scale Equity
When?
Where?
How much?
For whom and by whom?
� Should be created at
the beginning
� Match timelines of
the project
� Onsite or
offsite
contributions
� Should be set
larger in size than
the area of impact
� Benefits to flow
to Conservation
and those who
incur costs
Species
communities
Biosphere
Landscapes
Genes
We are dealing with increasingly complex
systems and on large scales
Bigger challenges
Establishing equivalence for offsets is difficult
It is not possible to quantify benefits of ecosystem
services and conservation values in absolute terms
We tend to adopt crude currencies for trading
biodiversity
Need for better economic evaluation tools to improve public confidence in their findings
Problems of trading X for Y
(forests for wetlands, parcel of land for
habitat functions, lengths of streams
for catchment benefits)
Difficult to ensure no net loss or positive gain
Different stakeholders assign different values to
biodiversity
Risks associated with biodiversity offset
Dangers of encouraging projects in biodiversity rich areas
Offsets may become a means of justifying projects that
could be avoided
We are already using biodiversity offsets.
Different regulatory systems have evolved in different
contexts and countries.
Biodiversity offsets are already part of legal framework in
some countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, UK, USA).
Voluntary mechanisms also exist as part of corporate
requirements in many countries (Western Australia, Victoria
and New South Wales).
There is a need for a better scientific and policy research,
improving the consensus and reducing the adhocism.
Experience of using biodiversity offsets
Wetland Banking in the US under the Clean Water Act
1972 and the US Army Corps of Engineers.
Conservation Banking in the US under the Endangered
Species Act and Guidance on Establishment, Use and
Operations of Conservation Banks.
Country specific regulatory mechanism
California was the first state to authorize the use of conservation banking and has
established 50 conservation bank since 1995
Developer must first avoid and then ensure
restoration of prior wetlands, enhancement
of low quality wetlands and creation of new
wetlands.
Each hectare of wetland damaged or
destroyed must be replaced
USA
Habitats and Birds Directives and implementing
regulations in the EU under Council Directive 92/43/EEC
of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats
and of wild fauna and flora and Council Directive
79/409/EEC.
The Environmental Liability Directive makes specific
reference to biodiversity and operates on the ‘polluter
pays principle’ requiring companies to undertake
compensation for environmental damage or imminent
environmental damage.
No set criteria, but offsets must ensure that the
overall coherence of the Natura 2000 network is
protected.
European Union
Tradable Forest Conservation Obligations under the
Forest Regulation and National System of Conservation
Units under Lei No 4771 of 1965; Lei No 14.247 of
22/7/2002, Lei No 9.985 of 18/7/2000, Decre to No.
4.340 of 22/8/2002.
Regulation require rural property to
maintain a forest reserve of at least 20%.
Where a development has a significant
environmental impact, it must compensate
for this by supporting a unit within a
National System of Conservation Units
(SNUC).
The sum paid depends on the degree of
environmental impact of the project. It must
be at least 0.5% the total investment costs
and in rainforest areas may be above 6%.
Brazil
DEC (Department of Environment and Conservation)
Threatened species legislation amendment act
2004.
Native vegetation Act 2003.
Bio-Banking scheme to support
biodiversity certification process.
System of developing biodiversity
credits needed to achieve a
maintain or improve outcome for
biodiversity.
NSW
Switzerland
Federal law for protected of Nature and Landscape
mandates reconstitution and replacement of protected
biotopes where impacts are unavoidable
(www.admin.ch/ch/f/rs/451/918.html)
Green offsets pilot programme
ensures that if a new
development increases (water
pollution in an area), the
developer should take action to
cut other sources of that type of
pollution in nearby areas
Native Vegetation Act 1997Australia
No net loss of fisheries habitat in Canada
under the Fisheries Act under R.S. 1985, c. F-
14, Policy for the Management of Fish Habitat
(1986), Habitat conservation and Protection
Guidance 1998.
Creation of similar habitat near to the development
area within the same to a different ecological unit that
supports the same species.
Increasing the productive capacity of the existing
habitat at or near the development site or within the
same ecological unit or a different one with the same
species.
Increase the productive capacity of existing habitat for
a different stock or species on or offsite.
Canada
Policies encouraging offset approach
Safeguard policies - Operational Policy on Natural
Habitats 1998
World Bank
The Netherlands
Ecological compensation programme
Developing countries like India have mandated the payments as Net Present Values of land identified for conversion
and also compensatory afforestation of equivalent land for which payments to be made by the developers.
IFC does not support projects involving
significant conversion of natural habitat
unless there are no feasible alternatives for
the project and its siting and comprehensive
analysis demonstrate that the overall project
benefits outweigh the environmental costs
Developers who damages habitats are
required to offset this damage through
protection of three times the original area
in the same zone (OECD, 1996; Landell-
Mills & Porras, 2002).
Developing country situations
Developing countries like India have mandated the payments of
Net Present Values for land identified for conversion and
compensatory forestation of equivalent land for which the
payments are to be made by the developers.
Recent initiatives of partnership for prmoting
Biodiversity offsets
Business and Biodivesity offset Program (BOP) :http://www.forest-trends.org/biodiversityoffsetprogram/index.php
Objectives:
Demonstrate conservation and livelihood outcomes in a
portfolio of biodiversity offset pilot projects.
Develop, test and disseminate best practice on
biodiversity offsets.
Influence policy and corporate developments on
biodiversity offsets so they meet conservation and
business
A new partnership between companies, governments and
conservation experts to explore biodiversity offsets.
Learning network of more than 50 institutions interested in learning
about and working on biodiversity offsets .