International biodiversity offsets

Introduction Intensifying patterns of international trade resulting from globalization create significant challenges for conservation efforts (see Chapter 2 for a more nuanced discussion of the relationship between globalization and conservation). By increasing primary commodity imports (meat, wood, coffee, sugar, etc.), developed nations are indirectly exporting environmental pressures to resource-rich developing countries in the form of heightened land-use change largely manifesting as deforestation and, consequently, increased biodiversity loss (see Chapter 6). Compounding these international drivers of extinction are more local pressures stemming from overpopulation, poverty and a general lack of local incentives for conservation. Together, global and local development pressures have contributed to the growth of the current species extinction rate to between 100 and 1,000 times faster than the historic average (Pimm and Brooks 2000).