Analysing the market for ecosystem services

Habitat, biodiversity or mitigation banking describes the trade in habitat or biodiversity ‘credits’, i.e. areas of land where environmental restoration has taken place that can be bought to compensate for unavoidable habitat destruction through development. This concept has been in practice since the 1980s in America, and its use is spreading as a means for governments to reduce the biodiversity loss associated with economic growth. A report by the organisation Ecosystem Marketplace launched today lists 39 such schemes in operation and another 25 planned around the world today. It calculates a market of between $1.8 billion and $2.9 billion per year alone from the 20% of projects that provide figures, resulting in the additional conservation management or protection of 86,000 hectares of land per year. There is increasing interest within the EU and the UK of adopting a more formalised habitat banking system, and both the EC and Defra have recently published scoping reports on the subject.

The State of Biodiversity Markets report is available to download here:

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