Offsetting impacts of development on biodiversity and ecosystem services (2017-2021)

This projects aims to provide the innovation needed to reform biodiversity offsetting policies by integrating ecosystem services‿nature‿s contribution to human wellbeing. Current offsets tend to focus on achieving biodiversity goals, potentially at the expense of ecosystem services, which is a significant problem given global development pressures and the costs of eroding ecosystem services. Research on offsets and ecosystem services is fast-growing but their integration in this project is cutting-edge. Expected novel outputs include insight into how offsets impact ecosystem services; and quantified costs and benefits of integrating ecosystem services goals. Such innovation will help secure ecosystem services for long-term human wellbeing.