When Biodiversity Offsetting Licenses Injustice

Biodiversity offsetting is often viewed as a morally neutral practice, in which damage to biodiversity at ‘impact’ sites is compensated for by the protection or restoration of biodiversity at ‘offset’ sites. Clearly, this view cannot be maintained if offsetting actually licenses serious injustices. This short paper aims to show how biodiversity offsetting can indeed potentially license serious injustices, including the disruption of important human attachments to place and to ecosystems; distributive injustice and exploitation; and serious harms to non-human animals. Such risks must be taken into account in any reckoning of the permissibility of offsetting.