Policy development for environmental licensing and biodiversity offsets in Latin America.

Attempts to meet biodiversity goals through application of the mitigation hierarchy have gained wide traction globally with increased development of public policy, lending standards, and corporate practices. With interest in biodiversity offsets increasing in Latin America, we seek to strengthen the...

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Main Authors: Ana Villarroya, Ana Cristina Barros, Joseph Kiesecker
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4156437?pdf=render
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author Ana Villarroya
Ana Cristina Barros
Joseph Kiesecker
author_facet Ana Villarroya
Ana Cristina Barros
Joseph Kiesecker
author_sort Ana Villarroya
collection DOAJ
description Attempts to meet biodiversity goals through application of the mitigation hierarchy have gained wide traction globally with increased development of public policy, lending standards, and corporate practices. With interest in biodiversity offsets increasing in Latin America, we seek to strengthen the basis for policy development through a review of major environmental licensing policy frameworks in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. Here we focused our review on an examination of national level policies to evaluate to which degree current provisions promote positive environmental outcomes. All the surveyed countries have national-level Environmental Impact Assessment laws or regulations that cover the habitats present in their territories. Although most countries enable the use of offsets only Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru explicitly require their implementation. Our review has shown that while advancing quite detailed offset policies, most countries do not seem to have strong requirements regarding impact avoidance. Despite this deficiency most countries have a strong foundation from which to develop policy for biodiversity offsets, but several issues require further guidance, including how best to: (1) ensure conformance with the mitigation hierarchy; (2) identify the most environmentally preferable offsets within a landscape context; (3) determine appropriate mitigation replacement ratios; and (4) ensure appropriate time and effort is given to monitor offset performance.
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spelling doaj.art-8f5adb1bbc5e4a149b67e0b4bb360afe2022-12-21T18:40:37ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032014-01-0199e10714410.1371/journal.pone.0107144Policy development for environmental licensing and biodiversity offsets in Latin America.Ana VillarroyaAna Cristina BarrosJoseph KieseckerAttempts to meet biodiversity goals through application of the mitigation hierarchy have gained wide traction globally with increased development of public policy, lending standards, and corporate practices. With interest in biodiversity offsets increasing in Latin America, we seek to strengthen the basis for policy development through a review of major environmental licensing policy frameworks in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. Here we focused our review on an examination of national level policies to evaluate to which degree current provisions promote positive environmental outcomes. All the surveyed countries have national-level Environmental Impact Assessment laws or regulations that cover the habitats present in their territories. Although most countries enable the use of offsets only Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru explicitly require their implementation. Our review has shown that while advancing quite detailed offset policies, most countries do not seem to have strong requirements regarding impact avoidance. Despite this deficiency most countries have a strong foundation from which to develop policy for biodiversity offsets, but several issues require further guidance, including how best to: (1) ensure conformance with the mitigation hierarchy; (2) identify the most environmentally preferable offsets within a landscape context; (3) determine appropriate mitigation replacement ratios; and (4) ensure appropriate time and effort is given to monitor offset performance.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4156437?pdf=render
spellingShingle Ana Villarroya
Ana Cristina Barros
Joseph Kiesecker
Policy development for environmental licensing and biodiversity offsets in Latin America.
PLoS ONE
title Policy development for environmental licensing and biodiversity offsets in Latin America.
title_full Policy development for environmental licensing and biodiversity offsets in Latin America.
title_fullStr Policy development for environmental licensing and biodiversity offsets in Latin America.
title_full_unstemmed Policy development for environmental licensing and biodiversity offsets in Latin America.
title_short Policy development for environmental licensing and biodiversity offsets in Latin America.
title_sort policy development for environmental licensing and biodiversity offsets in latin america
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4156437?pdf=render
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