Uncertainty in the Design and Implementation of Conservation Offsets
A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Landscape Ecology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2021) | Viewed by 4863
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Despite various political efforts, biodiversity is still declining dramatically, which is to a large extent due to land-use intensification. Although an increasing proportion of the Earth’s surface is protected for biodiversity conservation, much of the world’s biodiversity is on private land. Next to regulations, market-based instruments such as conservation payments and conservation offsets are important tools for biodiversity conservation on private lands. Conservation offsets are based on the concept of tradable permits that is successfully applied, e.g., in pollution control. Airborne emissions, such as those of greenhouse gases, can be rather easily traded, because it does not play a major role where (and largely when) they take place. Additionally, the relative impacts of the different greenhouse gases are relatively well-known, so substitution rates can be calculated easily to trade different gases. Applying the tradable permits concept to biodiversity conservation, in contrast, is much more difficult, because biodiversity is multifaceted, spatially heterogeneous, and dynamic. Whether a conservation offset scheme is able to avoid net loss of biodiversity or achieve no net loss cost-effectively is subject to considerable uncertainty. This Special Issue welcomes theoretical and empirical papers that address issues of uncertainty in the design and implementation of conservation offsets. Regardless of the type of study, papers should have practical relevance or advance our theoretical understanding, or (ideally) both.
Prof. Dr. Martin Drechsler
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- biodiversity
- conservation offsets
- cost-effectiveness
- effectiveness
- market-based conservation instruments
- spatial heterogeneity
- uncertainty
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