Introduction: Biodiversity offsets–the European perspective on no net loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services

Abstract

One of today’s great challenges is to safeguard biodiversity for future generations. An increasing number of countries and economic sectors are adopting strategies to slow and stop biodiversity loss. In this book, we examine existing approaches to achieve no net loss of biodiversity in selected EU countries. Adopting an explicitly European perspective, our focus is on various options to compensate negative impacts on nature, ecosystem services and biodiversity. Although Europe is crisscrossed by a network of protected areas such as Natura 2000 sites, and the EU has a strict legal framework for offsetting within Natura 2000, this is not enough to conserve the continent’s biodiversity and the continued flow of benefits from nature to people. Europe is a fine-grained patchwork of natural and modified habitats which form varied and highly valued cultural landscapes. These provide vital ecosystem services as well as habitats for animals and plants, resulting in a high level of biodiversity outside of dedicated nature reserves. This book emphasizes the values of nature and biodiversity in landscapes shaped by human activity.