July 2014: The report of a global conference on approaches to avoid, minimize, restore and offset biodiversity loss, titled ‘To No Net Loss of Biodiversity and Beyond,’ presents lessons and ideas exchanged during the conference as well as major themes and cross-cutting issues. The conference was held under the EU’s ‘No Net Loss Initiative,’ an initiative in support of the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2020.

Co-hosted by Forest Trends, the Business and Biodiversity Offsets Programme (BBOP), the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the conference aimed to: catalyze agreement on practical ways to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services; exchange ideas and experiences; provide advice on the design of implementation measures; and build capacity on technical and policy issues.

Major themes that emerged during the conference include the need for: mitigation policy frameworks that strengthen biodiversity protection; clear and unambiguous policy requirements that establish high standards; discussions of biodiversity offsets in the broader mitigation context rather than as an isolated issue; high standards for applying the mitigation hierarchy; landscape-level planning; capacity building and training; sharing of examples of best practice; monitoring, verification and enforcement; and international and multi-stakeholder dialogue.

The conference was held 3-4 June 2014 in London, UK. [Conference website][Congo Basin Forest Partnership Press Release][Publication: To No Net Loss and Beyond: A Summary of Discussions at the Conference][EU No Net Loss Initiative] [Biodiversity Policy & Practice article on launch of No Net Loss Consultations]