Offsetting impacts of development on biodiversity and ecosystem services

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Conservation Biology
• Ecological Economics

Background:

• Offsetting is a tool to mitigate environmental impacts from development.
• Biodiversity and carbon are common offset targets, but other ecosystem services are increasingly traded.
• Trading diverse ecosystem services introduces new environmental and social risks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide guidance on "trading with minimal trade-offs" in offsetting.
• To ensure biodiversity offsets do not negatively impact other ecosystem services, and vice versa.
• To address the fragmentation in the literature concerning different offset targets.

Main Methods:

• Literature survey on offsetting biodiversity, carbon, and other ecosystem services.
• Conceptualizing links between different offset targets.
• Describing approaches to manage potential trade-offs.

Main Results:

• Each offsetting subfield (biodiversity, carbon, ecosystem services) addresses unique issues and often overlooks others.
• Potential trade-offs between different offset targets are rarely assessed.
• Key differences and links between biodiversity and ecosystem service offsets are discussed.

Conclusions:

• Offsetting policies are emerging internationally, necessitating improved strategies.
• A research agenda is proposed to strengthen outcomes of offsetting policies.
• Managing trade-offs is crucial for effective and equitable environmental offsetting.