Urban Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity Offsets

Abstract

With the adoption of the 2020 Biodiversity Strategy, the EU has made a commitment to halting the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystem services in the EU by 2020. EU-wide actions include the development of an initiative to ensure that there is no net loss of biodiversity, ecosystems and their services e.g. through compensation or offsetting schemes by 2015 (Action 7b; initiated by the European Commission). In this chapter we intend to examine one relatively new and innovative instrument that can be applied to achieve no net loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services: biodiversity offsets. We focus on the German system as a kind of role model and example that shows challenges and advantages of a biodiversity offsetting system within the European context. However, a brief outlook on comparable offsetting systems in other countries will also be raised. Particularly, the urban stage is to be addressed.