The biodiversity Market Mirage

How biodiversity offsetting and crediting destroys nature and undermines the rights of peoples

Biodiversity is in crisis. Nature is being degraded and destroyed at a dizzying pace, and entire species are being eradicated as their habitats disappear. Over the past years, the obvious solution to stop destroying ecosystems and uphold the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has been overshadowed by various ploys to quantify and put a financial value on nature.

In this report, presented at the opening of the Un Convention on Biological Diversity COP16 in Cali, Colombia, we take a closer look at biodiversity offsets and credits, which are part of the plethora of market-based schemes that are being presented as antidotes to the biodiversity crisis. Biodiversity offsets are in fact policy schemes that may or may not be market-based, but we consider them as part and parcel of free-market capitalist ideology. Biodiversity offsets and credits promote and normalise the idea that the loss of biodiversity and nature in one area can be compensated for elsewhere. The various articles compiled here expose the myriad of problems associated with these schemes, showing that they are yet another false ‘solution’ proposed by the beneficiaries of neoliberal economic monetisation and financialization.

The report is a collaborative effort that draws upon the invaluable contributions of Nele Marien – Friends of the Earth International, Mirna Fernandez – Third World Network, Simon Counsell, Heitor Dellasta -Global Youth Biodiversity Network, Frédéric Hache, Tamra L Gilbertson PhD – Indigenous Environmental Network, Valentina Figuera Martínez – Global Forest Coalition (GFC), Lim Li Ching – Third World Network.’

You can read the full report here.

This was originally published on Friends of the Earth International’s website.