Biodiversity loss

The Protected Planet Report series, launched in 2012, helps track international progress towards achieving Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 - a target for the global protected area network and for other related targets. One of the key messages of the 2012 Protected Planet Report was that a better understanding and more complete overview of each element of Target 11 would be helpful.

Governments, companies, banks and civil society are placing more emphasis on the rigorous application of the mitigation hierarchy to avoid, minimize and compensate for projects' impacts on biodiversity. The final step in the mitigation hierarchy sequence are biodiversity offsets to achieve No Net Loss (NNL) or Net Gain (NG). Thirty-nine countries have existing laws or policies on NNL/NG, biodiversity offsets or compensation, and twenty-two countries are developing them.

The goal of biodiversity offsets -- measurable conservation outcomes resulting from actions designed to compensate for significant residual adverse biodiversity impacts arising from project development after other appropriate prevention and mitigation measures have been taken -- is to achieve no net loss (or net gain) in biodiversity. This report assesses the conditions under which biodiversity offsets may provide the best outcomes for biodiversity and achieve no net loss.

The Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region is renowned for the attractiveness of its coastal zones, high marine biodiversity and rich marine and coastal resources, but the 30 million or so people who live on the coast of the WIO region have had a significant impact on its biodiversity.