“Net Gain” is a lose-lose for rights, gender justice and social equity in biodiversity policy
The concepts of “Net Gain” and “No Net Loss” have become popular in biodiversity conservation circles and are embraced in the first draft of a new global biodiversity framework released by the UN Convention on Biodiversity (CBD). At the heart of these concepts are biodiversity offsets, which are supposed to compensate for environmental harm caused by extractive industry, infrastructure and other development projects. As scientists and local communities have pointed out, biodiversity offsets often fail to contribute to biodiversity conservation …
