Reconciling conservation and development…..

Asha Rajvanshiar@wii.gov.in

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

Accurate measures of impacts on biodiversity is

almost impossible

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 .

Case studies from around the world