Biodiversity banking
Encyclopedia
Biodiversity banking, also known as biodiversity trading, biodiversity offsets or conservation banking is a process by which biodiversity loss can be reduced by creating a framework which allows biodiversity to be reliably measured, and market based solutions applied to improving biodiversity. Biodiversity banking provides a means to place a monetary value on ecosystem services
Ecosystem services
Humankind benefits from a multitude of resources and processes that are supplied by natural ecosystems. Collectively, these benefits are known as ecosystem services and include products like clean drinking water and processes such as the decomposition of wastes...

.

Two biodiversity banking schemes operating in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 are the New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 BioBanking scheme , which commenced in 2008, and the Victorian
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

 Native Vegetation Management Framework
Native Vegetation Management Framework
The Native Vegetation Management: A Framework for action 2002 is a Victorian strategy which aims to protect, enhance and revegetate Victoria's native vegetation. The Framework’s main goal is to "achieve a reversal, across the entire landscape of the long-term decline in the extent and quality of...

 scheme. Both schemes apply particularly to developers, where biodiversity values will be reduced through land clearing and building development. The framework requires developers to source biodiversity credits through a market mechanism to offset biodiversity loss.

The "mitigation banking" process in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 applies to impacts on wetlands. It requires that developers firstly avoid harm to wetlands, but if harm is considered unavoidable, then similar wetlands of similar functions and values must be "protected, enhanced or restored" in compensation for those that will be damaged. The process comes under the US Clean Water Act 1972 the US Army Corps of Engineers
regulations.

See also

  • Biodiversity
    Biodiversity
    Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...

  • Mitigation banking
    Mitigation banking
    Mitigation banking is the restoration, creation, enhancement, or preservation of a wetland, stream, or habitat conservation area which offsets expected adverse impacts to similar nearby ecosystems...

  • Conservation in Australia
    Conservation in Australia
    Conservation in Australia is an issue of state and federal policy. Australia is one of the most biologically diverse countries in the world, with a large portion of species endemic to Australia...

  • Environmental issues in Australia
    Environmental issues in Australia
    Environmental issues in Australia describes a number of environmental issues which affect the environment of Australia. There are a range of such issues, some of them relating to conservation in Australia while others, for example the deteriorating state of Murray-Darling Basin, have a direct and...

  • Economics of biodiversity
    Economics of biodiversity
    There have been a number of economic arguments advanced regarding evaluation of the benefits of biodiversity. Most are anthropocentric but economists have also debated whether biodiversity is inherently valuable, independent of benefits to human....

  • Satoyama
    Satoyama
    is a Japanese term applied to the border zone or area between mountain foothills and arable flat land. Literally, sato means arable and livable land or home land, and yama means mountain...


External links

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