Biodiversity offsets are measurable conservation outcomes resulting from actions designed to compensate for significant residual adverse biodiversity impacts arising from project development after appropriate prevention and mitigation measures have been taken.
The goal of biodiversity offsets is to achieve no net loss and preferably a net gain of biodiversity on the ground with respect to species composition, habitat structure, ecosystem function and people’s use and cultural values associated with biodiversity.
Compensation is a very flexible term that can mean a number of different things. Dictionary definitions often refer to something, typically money, awarded to an individual as recompense for loss, injury, or suffering. This has the connotation of damages or some kind of award to victims. Occasionally, compensation is defined more in terms of ‘making good’ specific damage, in which case it become closer to the definition of ‘offset’ above (except that it lacks the specific requirement for achieving ‘no net loss’).
