July 2011: The Global Environment Facility (GEF), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and Forest Trends, an NGO, have published an update to the 2010 report on the State of Biodiversity Markets, which finds that the global annual market size is US$2.4-4.0 billion at minimum, and likely much more, as 80 percent of existing programmes are not transparent enough to estimate their market size.

The recent research finds 45 existing compensatory mitigation programs around the world, ranging from programs with active mitigation banking of biodiversity credits to programs channeling development impact fees to policies that drive one-off offsets. There are another 27 programs in various stages of development or investigation. Within each active offset program, there are numerous individual offset sites, including over 1,100 mitigation banks worldwide. The conservation impact of this market includes at least 187,000 hectares of land under some sort of conservation management or permanent legal protection each year. Examples are provided from North America, Central and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania. [Publication: State of the Biodiversity Markets]