Data from: Optimizing regulatory requirements to aid in the implementation of compensatory mitigation

Governments, companies, and conservation organizations seek to minimize the impacts of development through application of the mitigation hierarchy: avoid, minimize, restore, and offset (McKenney & Kiesecker 2010). Around the world, policies and performance standards for compensatory mitigation are being strengthened not just to reduce impacts to biodiversity, but to achieve goals for biodiversity that range from “no net loss” to “net gains” (IFC 2012). Although use of offsets is still in its infancy, offsets are gaining traction globally as a goal of public policy (Madsen et al. 2011; Villarroya, Barros & Kiesecker 2014), corporate practices (Rainey et al. 2014), and lending standards (IFC 2012; Equator Principles 2013). As such, these new policies and standards will be important drivers for companies to improve mitigation practices.

各国政府、企业与自然保护组织均通过应用影响减缓层级（mitigation hierarchy）——即规避、最小化开发影响、生态修复以及生态抵消（offsets）四个核心环节——来尽可能降低开发活动带来的负面影响（McKenney与Kiesecker，2010）。全球范围内，补偿性减缓政策与绩效标准正不断强化，其目标不仅限于降低对生物多样性（biodiversity）的损害，更旨在实现从"无净损失"到"净增益"的各类生物多样性保护目标（国际金融公司（IFC），2012）。尽管生态抵消的应用仍处于起步阶段，但作为公共政策（Madsen等人，2011；Villarroya、Barros与Kiesecker，2014）、企业实践（Rainey等人，2014）以及信贷标准（IFC，2012；赤道原则（Equator Principles），2013）的重要目标，生态抵消正渐获全球范围内的认可与推广。据此，这些全新的政策与标准将成为推动企业优化减缓实践的关键驱动力。