Side Event
The Role of Biodiversity Offsets in Conservation - an open Roundtable Discussion
Organizer
The World Conservation Union
Date and Time
29 November 2005 18:30 - 20:0
Biodiversity offsets are an increasingly used and advocated as a potential mitigation option for residual impacts. They have been defined as “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). Biodiversity offsets: Views, experience, and the business case. IUCN and Insight Investment). The growing attention to offsets as a possible conservation tool is evident from, for example, a joint Forest Trends / CI initiative (the Business and Biodiversity Offset Program – BBOP) which is establishing a number of pilot offset initiatives to explore and resolve issues around the practical application of offsets and two recent ICMM publications on the topic (see www.icmm.com). Additionally, offsets are being explored as a way to deliver commitments to “no net loss” and “net positive impact” on biodiversity. As a result of this attention to offsets, there is a growing need to address some of the unresolved issues raised by the concept of offsets and their practical application. Yet there are many perspectives on the discussion on biodiversity offsets and their viability as a concept and tool for conservation. This Roundtable will provide open forum in which all perspectives are welcome and open for discussion and debate. The objective of the side event at SBSTTA 11 is to convene key stakeholders from the conservation, business, and scientific communities to explore and resolve some or all of the issues surrounding the concept of offsets.