8. Biodiversity offsetting Flashcards
An overview of BO
BO policies are used in at least 33 countries around the world, cumulatively accounting for 8.3m hecatres of land.
* Principle of reducing harm to offset another harm elsewhere
* Systems must be set up to verify the value of each event
* Rooted in ideas of neoliberal economic efficiency
* Increasing idea of ‘net gain’ as opposed to ‘net zero’
Bennett et al (2017)
How does BO reframe nature?
BO reframes nature by:
1) measuring it across time and space as equivalent everywhere
2) ignoring broader dimensions of place and deepening nature/culture divide
3) reframing conservation as an exchange of credits
4) tying conservation to economic growth and development
BO is another example of conservation depoliticisng and rendering technical biodiversity loss
It deepens the material separation betwee n society and nature
AND it accepts a future where biodiversity loss is continuous
Apostolopoulou et Adams (2017)
The ethics of BO
Ethical dimensions are overlooked in BO.
1) Violates intrinsic value
2) Losses of nature cannot be entirely compensated
3) Too little is knwon to make adequate trades (reluctant commodity)
4) Negative justice implications
Can lead to green-grabbing.
Karlsson & Bjornberg (2020)
Case study: Narmada Dam, Gujarat, India
Finds that values related to land use cannot be reduced to monetary values.
Villagers expressed that a price could not be put on their tribal life and fundamentally rejected the idea that nature could be valued in the first place.
O’Neill (2019)
The politics of BO across time and institutional scales
A discourse analysis of BO policy documents finds that offsetting has been promoted by reformist approaches that encourage economic growth without considering biocultural limits.
More recently, BO has been interpreted as an insturment that can be respectful of plaentary boundaries, but this would require a major structural change in governance
Damiens et al (2021)
A typology of BO offset policies.
There are lots of varieties of BO - and not all are totally neoliberal
* Different degrees of commodification depending on policy design
* We need to distinguish between commensurability (projects that simply match loss and gain) and credits trading on BO (commodification/financialisation)
* The government also plays a key role in enforing policies and determining supply/demand of BO units e.g. by granting legitimacy to a compensation site - so cannot be overly neoliberal in our analysis
Koh et al (2019)
Spaces of double exception
Identifies a paradox in the growing mutual dependence of conservation organisations and corporations.
E.G. ‘degazetted PAs’, or extractive areas within PAs
OR Pas that are also extractive areas
LeBillon (2021)
Case study: Ambatovy nickel mine, Madagascar
The Ambatovy mine is one of the biggest nickel mines in the world, destroying 2000ha of forest.
* Ambatovy company launched a BO programme to deliver no net loss of biodiversity
* This comprises of both conservation restrictions and development activities e.g. preventing forest clearing and poaching elsewhere, donating seeds/fertiliser/livestock, training in livestock raising techniques
* Note that an informal system of customary rights was overlooked by this
* Overall, people felt they had suffered a net cost. Even though development activities could deliver benefits in the future, there was a spatial/temporal mismatch
So, BO schemes are an envtl justice issue.
We shouldn’t be overly critical since there are some benefits.
And we need to pay attention to intersectionality since it was richest households who benefitted most e.g. from development-related training, whilst swidden-reliant households were left out
Bidaud et al (2017)
Case study: neoliberal BO in England
In the UK, BO received attention after 2008 financial crash as a way of resolving economic development and conversation (DEFRA, 2013)
It gained popularity in context of a global crisis of capitalism
Specific governance arrangements have emerged to support BO implementation, particularly a shift ot localist arrangements
BO is rescaling governance towards including the private sector
Apostolopoulou (2016)
