Biodiversity Offsets and the Mitigation Hierarchy: Key Components for a Better and Cost Effective Closure Design

摘要

In Chile, extractive industries, mining in particular, continue impacting biodiversity, despite the availability of corporate guidelines, international best practices and local legislation to mitigate these impacts. In fact, Chile has one of the highest rates of biodiversity loss among OECD countries. This paper suggests that this situation is the result of lack of technical capabilities and limited experience in both private and public sectors, with such legislation and best practices historically poorly applied. It is also suggested that this situation creates an opportunity for a change in the way biodiversity impacts are being managed by all stakeholders in Chile. Following international conventions and pressure from international stakeholders, as well as the increasing availability of best practices, the opportunity to implement the mitigation hierarchy and appropriate biodiversity offsets on ongoing and new projects with particular focus in their respective closure plans has arisen recently as a cost-effective, internationally accepted practice. Recent experience has proven that proper implementation of biodiversity offsets provides stakeholder-validated opportunities for good business practice, reduces approval timing and long term costs with less risk exposure. The following document presents a specific case study for the design and feasibility of implementation of a biodiversity offset that responds to a retroactive impact. The offset has been desgined to follow best practices and current national guidelines. The suggested methodology used in this specific case study includes stakeholder engagement recommendations, assessment of residual impact and potential sites for compensation. The implementation of the mitigation hierarchy and biodiversity offsets is considered an effective tool to ensure that the long-term legacy of the operation is no net loss of biodiversity. In addition, an appropriate design of a biodiversity offset, including an endowment for long-term management, ensures stakeholder support and provides regulators with an accepted tool that can greatly reduce litigation risk for environmental damage.