Mitigation hierarchy: offsetting biodiversity loss

In addition to the biodiversity metric, mitigation hierarchy is a crucial framework and should be used to outline a set of steps to reduce, mitigate, or offset the negative impacts of development on biodiversity. The hierarchy consists of four main steps:

Biodiversity offset policies have become an increasingly popular strategy for mitigating the impact of development on natural ecosystems around the world. While it is always preferable to try and avoid and minimise damage to biodiversity, sometimes it’s simply unavoidable - and when that happens biodiversity offsets offer a mechanism for balancing the impact of development through ecological compensation (restoration, enhancement, or protection of ecosystems) in other locations. In this blog, we will explore what biodiversity offsetting is and how it may be implemented into Biodiversity Gain Plans to meet new UK national policy to preserve and protect biodiversity.

Biodiversity Credits will be a key part in the new Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) regime. They will help to ensure that development projects comply with the new BNG rules so that when - and only when - it isn't possible to offset biodiversity losses from environmental projects, there is an ultimate fall back. Biodiversity Credits are the ‘in emergency break glass' option that will help ensure that every development can comply with biodiversity conservation outcomes under the new rules.