The EU's biodiversity strategy specifies a target to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2020. A No Net Loss initiative is an important component of the EU's strategy to achieve this. In accordance with the mitigation hierarchy, it will seek to strengthen efforts to first avoid, then minimise, then restore losses of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and to compensate for any residual losses. Previous research has identified two main types of design criteria that biodiversity offsets must address if they are to achieve no net loss. These criteria relate to the definition of offset requirements, and to arrangements for implementing offsets and habitat banking.
