Journal article
Taming a Wicked Problem: Resolving Controversies in Biodiversity Offsetting
M Maron, CD Ives, H Kujala, JW Bull, FJF Maseyk, S Bekessy, A Gordon, JEM Watson, PE Lentini, P Gibbons, HP Possingham, RJ Hobbs, DA Keith, BA Wintle, MC Evans
Bioscience | OXFORD UNIV PRESS | Published : 2016
Abstract
The rising popularity of biodiversity offsetting as a tool for balancing biodiversity losses from development with equivalent gains elsewhere has sparked debate on many fronts. The fundamental questions are the following: Is offsetting good, bad, or at least better than the status quo for biodiversity conservation outcomes, and what do we need to know to decide? We present a concise synthesis of the most contentious issues related to biodiversity offsetting, categorized as ethical, social, technical, or governance challenges. In each case, we discuss avenues for reducing disagreement over these issues and identify those that are likely to remain unresolved. We argue that there are many risks..
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Awarded by Horizon 2020 Framework Programme
Funding Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Australian Government's National Environmental Science Program's Threatened Species Recovery Hub. MM is supported by Australian Research Council (ARC) fellowship no. FT140100516. MCE was supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award and a Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Climate Adaptation Flagship scholarship. AG was supported by ARC Discovery Project no. DP150103122. FJFM is supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award and an ARC Centre for Excellence for Environmental Decisions Top-Up Scholarship. JWB is supported by a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship award from the European Commission.