Impact mitigation and biodiversity offsets - Compensation approaches from around the world

Through the ratification of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), member countries have made a commitment to support the conservation of biological diversity. One of the measures of the convention is a resolution to introduce "appropriate procedures requiring environmental impact as-sessment of its proposed projects that are likely to have significant adverse effects on biological diver-sity with a view to avoiding or minimizing such effects" (Article 14 1a). Discussions are ongoing re-garding how the requirements of the CBD can be integrated into existing assessment instruments, e.g. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), assessments required under the Habitats Directive or German Impact Mitigation Regulation (Eingriffsregelung). The present study compares compensation approaches taken with respect to impacts on biological diversity in selected countries from four different continents: Africa, Asia, North America and South America. With regard to the future development of German and international impact mitigation and compensation the focus lies not only on approaches that are already being implemented, but also those that are currently under discussion. As main findings an overview on compensation practices in chosen countries on the background of the specific legal and institutional framework was elaborated and assumptions for further research were formulated. Furthermore the inalienability of the German Impact Mitigation Regulation in the interna-tional context was underlined.