1. Biodiversity offsetting is a tool to balance ecological damage caused by human activity with new benefits created elsewhere. Offsetting is implemented by protecting, restoring or managing sufficiently large areas of habitat. While there are concerns about the true feasibility of offsetting, they are becoming a common policy tool world‐wide. Operationally uncomplicated, quantitative approaches to spatial analysis of offsets are rare and their use is often restricted by the availability of suitable spatial data.
2. We describe a practical method for offsets that builds upon two layers of relatively easily sourced spatial data, a balanced spatial priority ranking and a weighted range size rarity map. Together with (a) spatial information about impact and offset areas, and (b) extra parameters for the effectiveness of avoided loss and the amount of leakage expected, we can evaluate whether the proposed offset exchange represents a credible no net loss or net positive impact with an upward trade. The priority ranking and range size rarity maps can be produced in various ways, most notably using existing conservation planning tools. Here we used the standard outputs of the Zonation spatial prioritization software.
3. We illustrate the method and associated visualization in the context of offsetting of boreal forests in Finland, where forests experience high and increasing pressures from forestry and bioenergy sectors. The example is timely as there is political demand for the uptake of biodiversity offset policies in Finland, and boreal forests are the most common biotope.
4. The methods described here are applicable to biomes around the world. The described tools are made available as r scripts that utilize standard Zonation outputs, thus providing direct linkage to any past or future Zonation applications. As a limitation, the present methods only apply to avoided loss offsets.

中文翻译：

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一种基于空间保护优先输出的评估空间生物多样性抵消情景的实用方法

1. 抵消生物多样性是一种平衡人类活动造成的生态破坏与其他地方创造的新利益的工具。抵销是通过保护，恢复或管理足够大的栖息地面积来实现的。尽管人们担心抵消的真实可行性，但它们正在成为全球通用的政策工具。操作简单，定量的偏移空间分析方法很少见，并且其使用通常受到合适空间数据可用性的限制。
2. 我们描述了一种实用的偏移量方法，该方法基于相对容易获取的两层空间数据，平衡的空间优先级排序和加权范围大小的稀有度图。连同（a）有关影响和补偿区域的空间信息，以及（b）避免损失的有效性和预期的泄漏量的额外参数，我们可以评估建议的补偿交换是否表示可信的无净损失或净正影响向上交易。可以通过多种方式生成优先级排序和范围大小的稀有图，其中最著名的是使用现有的保护规划工具。在这里，我们使用了分区空间优先化软件的标准输出。
3. 在芬兰的北方森林被抵消的背景下，我们举例说明了该方法和相关的可视化，那里的森林承受着来自林业和生物能源部门的巨大压力和不断增加的压力。这个例子是及时的，因为在芬兰有采取生物多样性补偿政策的政治需求，而北方森林是最常见的生物群落。
4. 这里描述的方法适用于世界各地的生物群落。所描述的工具是可用作为ř利用标准区划输出脚本，从而任何过去或未来的区划应用提供直接连接。作为限制，本方法仅适用于避免的损失补偿。