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Great Apes and Biodiversity Offset Projects in Africa: The Case for National Offset Strategies

Kormos, Rebecca, Kormos, Cyril F., Humle, Tatyana, Lanjouw, Annette, Rainer, Helga, Victurine, Ray, Mittermeier, Russell A., Diallo, Mamadou S., Rylands, Anthony B., Williamson, Elizabeth A. and others. (2014) Great Apes and Biodiversity Offset Projects in Africa: The Case for National Offset Strategies. PLoS ONE, 9 (11). Article Number 111671. ISSN 1932-6203. (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0111671) (KAR id:44366)

Abstract

The development and private sectors are increasingly considering “biodiversity offsets” as a strategy to compensate for their negative impacts on biodiversity, including impacts on great apes and their habitats in Africa. In the absence of national offset policies in sub-Saharan Africa, offset design and implementation are guided by company internal standards, lending bank standards or international best practice principles. We examine four projects in Africa that are seeking to compensate for their negative impacts on great ape populations. Our assessment of these projects reveals that not all apply or implement best practices, and that there is little standardization in the methods used to measure losses and gains in species numbers. Even if they were to follow currently accepted best-practice principles, we find that these actions may still fail to contribute to conservation objectives over the long term. We advocate for an alternative approach in which biodiversity offset and compensation projects are designed and implemented as part of a National Offset Strategy that (1) takes into account the cumulative impacts of development in individual countries, (2) identifies priority offset sites, (3) promotes aggregated offsets, and (4) integrates biodiversity offset and compensation projects with national biodiversity conservation objectives. We also propose supplementary principles necessary for biodiversity offsets to contribute to great ape conservation in Africa. Caution should still be exercised, however, with regard to offsets until further field-based evidence of their effectiveness is available.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1371/journal.pone.0111671
Subjects: H Social Sciences
Q Science > QH Natural history > QH75 Conservation (Biology)
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Anthropology and Conservation
Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Anthropology and Conservation > DICE (Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology)
Depositing User: Tatyana Humle
Date Deposited: 13 Nov 2014 09:56 UTC
Last Modified: 09 Jan 2024 05:17 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/44366 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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