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SUMMARY:Biodiversity offsetting and the capitalist production of nature: r
 eflections from England - Elia Apostolopoulou
DTSTART:20151027T130000Z
DTEND:20151027T140000Z
UID:TALK62079@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ritika Kapur
DESCRIPTION:Biodiversity offsetting involves the balancing of biodiversity
  loss in one place (and at one time) by an equiva- lent biodiversity gain 
 elsewhere (an outcome referred to as No Net Loss). The conservation scienc
 e literature has chiefly addressed the extent to which biodiversity offset
 s can serve as a conservation tool\, focusing on the technical challenges 
 of its implementation. However\, offsetting has more pro- found implicatio
 ns than this technical approach suggests. In this paper we introduce the c
 oncept of policy frames\, and use it to identify four ways in which non-hu
 man nature and its conservation are reframed by offsetting. Firstly\, off-
  setting reframes nature in terms of isolated biodiversity units that can 
 be simply defined\, measured and exchanged across time and space to achiev
 e equivalence between eco- logical losses and gains. Secondly\, it reframe
 s biodiversity as lacking locational specificity\, ignoring broader dimens
 ions of place and deepening a nature–culture and nature–society divide
 . Thirdly\, it reframes conservation as an exchange of credits implying th
 at the value of non-human nature can be set by price. Fourthly\, it ties c
 onservation to land develop- ment and economic growth\, foreshadowing and 
 bypassing an oppositional position. We conclude that by presenting offsett
 ing as a technical issue\, the problem of biodiversity loss due to develop
 ment is depoliticized. As a result the pos- sibility of opposing and chall
 enging environmental destruc- tion is foreclosed\, and a dystopian future 
 of continued biodiversity loss is presented as the only alternative.
LOCATION:Seminar Room
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