Business and Biodiversity Offsets Program

WHAT IS BBOP?

BBOP is an international partnership of some 40 leading conservation organizations, companies, governments, and financial institutions developing, testing and implementing best practice on biodiversity offsets. Forest Trends launched BBOP in November 2004, and serves as its Secretariat with the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Together, the BBOP partners are designing and implementing biodiversity offsets in a range of industry sectors, countries and ecosystems, and sharing the results and practical guidance in the form of a number of publications.  These include a set of principles, offset design and implementation handbooks, and case studies.  BBOP also supports governments developing policy related to biodiversity offsets, conservation banking and land-use and landscape level planning.  BBOP is a global forum where organisations of many different kinds from around the world share experience and collaborate on the development of best practice related to biodiversity offsets.

WHAT ARE BIODIVERSITY OFFSETS?

Biodiversity offsets, as defined by BBOP, are measurable conservation outcomes resulting from actions designed to compensate for significant residual adverse biodiversity impacts arising from project development, and persisting after appropriate prevention and mitigation have been taken. The goal of biodiversity offsets is to achieve no net loss and preferably a net gain of biodiversity on the ground with respect to species composition, habitat structure, ecosystem function and people’s use and cultural values associated with biodiversity. 

The BBOP Vision:

The Business and Biodiversity Offsets Program envisages a future in which biodiversity offsets are applied worldwide to achieve no net loss and preferably a net gain of biodiversity relative to development impacts. 

The BBOP Mission:

BBOP’s mission is to provide leadership in the establishment of biodiversity offsets as a widely recognized and applied tool by developing and promoting best practice, based on agreed principles.

Phase I: During an initial ‘proof of concept’ phase, from its launch in November 2004 to June 2009, BBOP has developed and made widely available:

1. A set of internationally recognized best practice principles for biodiversity offset design and implementation, unanimously agreed in December 2008 by the BBOP Advisory Group.
2. Methodology handbooks for voluntary biodiversity offset design and implementation.
3. Practical, on-the-ground offset design experience from a portfolio of pilot projects in the extractive industry and real estate development sectors in six countries, described in case studies.
4. The results of consultations  with policy makers and other stakeholder groups in many countries.
   
5. A Learning Network of over 1000 individuals and organizations worldwide.

Phase II: With the first phase of BBOP’s work now concluded, the program is embarking on an ambitious  next phase for July 2009 – July 2012. Over this three year period, BBOP plans to engage new countries, industry sectors, and organizations to ensure wider perspectives and offset experiences are incorporated into the development of biodiversity offset practices. BBOP will diversify its pilot experiences  and  scale up the program’s delivered conservation results.

The BBOP membership has established the following work priorities  for Phase II:  

• POLICY: Country-level partnerships, advice on offset policy development, land-use and bioregional planning, aggregated offsets, conservation banking;
• PILOTS: Expand the portfolio of biodiversity offset experiences to a wider set of industries and regions;
• GUIDELINES: Improve the BBOP biodiversity offset design and implementation guidelines based on broader practical experience;
• TRAINING: Undertake training and capacity building so there are adequate professionals to support high quality offset design and implementation;
• COMMUNICATIONS:  Ensure BBOP is able to learn from experience around the world, communicate BBOP’s work to the public, and strengthen its role as a global forum; and
• ASSURANCE: Develop methods for the assurance of biodiversity offsets, such as verification and auditing protocols.

Follow this link to the BBOP Web Page for further information on program activities.