Global offsetting of the outsourced biodiversity footprint of consumption

Hanna Kalliolevo , Sami El Geneidy, Janne Kotiaho

International trade outsources environmental impacts of consumption through complex value chains causing biodiversity loss across Earth. There is a need to examine the negative biodiversity impacts and the opportunities to mitigate and offset the impacts, as a global systemic phenomenon. Traditional biodiversity offsetting is used to offset local land use impacts but no means to offset the outsourced biodiversity impacts exist. Here we explore global offsetting based on biodiversity equivalent, an analogue of the carbon dioxide equivalent, and scrutinize the assumptions behind the suggestion in the context of operationally important planning decisions of traditional biodiversity offsets. We find global offsetting to be operational but emphasize that it should not replace, but rather complement, the traditional offsetting. We conclude that until a global degrader pays -principle has been worked out and adopted, global offsetting is a viable option to offset at least some of the outsourced biodiversity impacts of consumption.