Business and Biodiversity Offsets Programme Webinar Announcement: From biodiversity Offsets to Target-Based Compensation - 23 October 2018

As the 2020 deadline for achieving the Aichi Targets approaches, focus has turned to the need for strong targets post-2020 to halt biodiversity decline. Since cessation of all biodiversity impacts seems unlikely, 'no net loss' approaches could play an important role. However, despite the potential for offsets and other forms of compensation for the residual impacts of development to contribute to achieving such targets, and other jurisdiction-level biodiversity conservation goals, they are rarely designed explicitly to do so. In particular, the intended outcome from offset policies and approaches is often unclear, as 'no net loss' of biodiversity can mean many different things, depending on the reference scenario. In this webinar, we will present an approach for better aligning compensatory actions at the project level with jurisdiction-level biodiversity conservation goals or targets. Being explicit about the desired outcome for biodiversity at the jurisdictional level can help to clarify the type of compensatory approach that would be most appropriate in response to residual biodiversity losses. The framework helps clarify the role that different types of compensatory actions can play in contributing to jurisdictional-level targets, and helps resolve ambiguity around the concept of 'no net loss'.