Biodiversity offsets are proliferating globally, and are commonly offered or required in a development context to address residual impacts on biodiversity. Regulatory requirements for mitigating or offsetting ecological harm are now commonplace, with more than 60 countries having introduced relevant policies. Biodiversity offsets are commonly framed in policy as opportunities to reconcile the competing interests...

Biodiversity is valued for its intrinsic worth and for its role in generating ecosystem services, such as soil fertility, clean air, renewable bio-resources, and water quality and availability. While biodiversity outcomes are generally pursued by nations for land in various types of ownership, this article focuses on protected areas on publicly owned lands. Currently, the...

‘Conservation matters’, New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DOC) briefed its new minister in 2014, because ‘New Zealand’s natural heritage shapes the country’s cultural identity and ... New Zealanders identify strongly with conservation lands and waters’ (Department of Conservation, 2014, p.4). It further explained that the benefits of conservation are much more than improving health and...

Public and stakeholder involvement in nature conservation through conservation boards has been a distinctive feature of New Zealand’s statutory framework for conservation, put in place in 1987. Since their inception, effective boards established for the purpose of ensuring that conservation stakeholders’ voices inform conservation planning have been regarded, at least in official discourse, as a...

Human use and development reshapes land, reconstitutes water, consumes space and natural resources and alters faunal compositions. This presents significant challenges to policy makers and wildlife conservation managers mandated to maintain and enhance biological diversity.