Delivering know-how for biodiversity offsets

---Introduction to the topic

Biodiversity offsets are actions to compensate for the impact of development on biodiversity in ways that can be measured. They involve land owners creating or restoring habitat for the express purpose of offsetting the impact of future development. These offset 'credits' are then purchased by developers who are proposing projects that will lead to loss of habitat, or deterioration in its biodiversity value. Offsets are intended for use only where all other steps to avoid or reduce impacts have been taken. Currently, developers make payments to local authorities and nature conservation projects in lieu of impacts on biodiversity. There, however, is concern that this money is not used to secure no net loss for biodiversity. Offsets are advocated as a way of addressing this problem.

There is growing interest in the application of biodiversity offsets in England, leaning from experiences in countries such as Australia and the United States. Since 2010, Defra has been evaluating the contribution that offsets might make to ensuring that the land use planning system in England provides better safeguards for biodiversity. While there are currently no regulations on offsetting, six voluntary pilots are underway in England. In its Final Report (March 2013), the business-led Ecosystem Markets Task Force placed biodiversity offsetting among the top five opportunities for the creation and development of new markets to stimulate growth and benefit the environment.

---NERC capabilities

NERC has datasets that describe the condition of marine, freshwater and land-based habitats and are therefore useful in the design and appraisal of offset schemes. These include, for example, data within the National Soil Inventory and habitat information in Land Cover Map. Countryside Survey, a periodic survey of the condition of the countryside under changing climate and land use pressures, is also a valuable resource to inform offset decisions. In response to this, NERC has funded the scoping of two tools by CEH to inform decisions about offsets.

NERC scientists possesses a broad range of expertise required for the national-level implementation of offsets. This includes, for example, expertise on sea mammals (Sea Mammal Research Unit) and UK flora (CEH). In particular, there is expertise on the condition of habitats and species and the feasibility of habitat restoration.

---Proposed Fellowship

The Fellowship will ensure that NERC expertise and data make a full contribution to the design and effective use of offsets in the UK. It will lead to independent assessments of technical questions and issues relating to offsets that are being posed by policy advisors, developers, planners and land owners. It will ensure that NERC expertise and data are used to make an assessment of what biodiversity offsets might achieve in terms of safeguarding biodiversity, ecosystem services and natural capital. The work will make use of the experiences of the existing voluntary offset pilots, and will build on current work by CEH to scope two tools to help inform offset decisions. The activities of the Fellowship will also develop new applications for NERC data and expertise, such as in informing decisions about the use of offsets in national infrastructure projects.

While offsetting is focused on development that is subject to planning law and regulation, there is growing interest in compensation for the cumulative impacts of business on supply chains. This means that companies supplying products and services in the UK would have a means to offset for their impacts on ecosystems in a similar way to current mechanisms to offset for carbon emissions. The Fellowship will ensure that NERC makes a tangible contribution to the establishment of compensatory measures for the impacts of supply chains on biodiversity.