Julia Baker

Biodiversity offsetting: better for nature

small pearl bordered fritillary (credit: Author)
Biodiversity offsetting is controversial. People suspect developers of trying to buy their way out of conservation requirements by compensating for biodiversity losses somewhere else. But the framework for offsetting provides several advantages that current wildlife legalisation doesn’t offer, and we desperately need these if we’re to reach our UK target of halting biodiversity loss by 2020. This article provides a consultant ecologists' view on the benefits of the scheme.