The environment department (DEFRA) has set out details of its thinking on biodiversity offsets. It wants help in developing the idea to feed into the forthcoming natural environment white paper. Biodiversity offsets can compensate for the ecological impacts of development, where these cannot be avoided or mitigated. A developer would pay for an offset which restores or creates habitat elsewhere, expected to deliver measurable outcomes. The Conservatives have been interested in the idea (ENDS Reports 412, p 7 and 426, pp 36-39). It could provide a way to tackle the decline in UK biodiversity (ENDS Report 424, pp 48-49).
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