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Bainbridge Island Selected for International Biodiversity Project
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Photo: Ben Legler |
What does the City of Bainbridge Island have in common with Ghana, Mexico, Qatar, South Africa, and Uganda?
Probably more than we might think, but one thing is for sure: all these places have been selected for pilot projects by the Business and Biodiversity Offset Program.
The Business and Biodiversity Offset Program, which goes by the jazzy acronym BBOP (“bebop”), is an international partnership between companies, governments, conservation organizations, and scientists.
BBOP seeks opportunities worldwide for businesses to voluntarily create biodiversity offsets that support conservation.
And what is a biodiversity offset? Much like mitigation efforts, a biodiversity offset is a conservation action designed to compensate for the residual, unavoidable harm to biodiversity caused by development projects.
The BBOP Secretariat is located in Washington, D.C., and is chaired by Forest Trends, an international non-profit organization that works to support innovative projects and companies that are developing new markets for ecosystem services.
For the City of Bainbridge Island, participating as a BBOP pilot project means an opportunity to learn from the policy expertise of the BBOP partners, and to demonstrate how local government incentive policies can encourage biodiversity offsets for real estate development impacts.
“I’m delighted that Bainbridge will serve as a model for this innovative approach to conservation, which links the environmental and economic choices we make in approaching development,” said Mayor Darlene Kordonowy.
Bainbridge Island is under increasing development pressure, as part of the rapidly growing Puget Trough ecoregion. Population growth and the demand for housing, retail development, and roads usually result in severe impacts on biodiversity, such as reduced forest cover, fragmented wildlife corridors, increased encroachment by invasive species, and altered intertidal habitat.
A partnership between the City of Bainbridge Island, the City’s Community Forestry Commission, and BBOP will guide the Bainbridge Pilot Project. The project will build on a number of current policies and ongoing efforts.
BBOP will provide advice and technical assistance as Bainbridge develops incentive-based policies to ensure conservation of forests, wildlife habitat, and biodiversity. The policies will become models that BBOP can use in other projects throughout the world.
In addition, the Bainbridge Pilot Project will focus on specific real estate development projects. These will include an urban project, a rural project, and possibly a marine project. The projects will provide on-the-ground opportunities for demonstrating a workable offset strategy and for quantifying biodiversity impacts and offsets.
The partners in each project, including the developer, the City, and community groups, will quantify impacts and analyze the threats of the proposed development on biodiversity. They will determine how to address the threats and identify options for conservation activities.
Offsetting impacts will involve specific mitigation efforts defined during the project design. The offsets may take place on or off site, depending on the project, its impact, and the conservation priorities.
BBOP pilot project team scientists and advisors meet twice a year to provide input and advice. They will be meeting in South Africa in September 2006, and they plan to sponsor a meeting on Bainbridge Island in April 2007.
For more information about BBOP on Bainbridge, please contact Marja Preston Planner, City of Bainbridge Island.
Definition:
Ecosystem services: Services that ecosystems such as wetlands, forests, grasslands, and oceans provide to human beings. These include water filtration, climate regulation, nutrient cycling, pollination, pest control, disease regulation, and flood control. more> (external link)