Biodiversity offsetting is the practice of using conservation actions such as habitat restoration, management or protection to compensate for ecological losses caused by development activity, including construction projects. The typical goal of offsetting is no net loss (NNL), which means that all ecological losses are compensated for by commensurate offset gains. The focus of this work is a conceptual and methodological exploration of net positive impact (NPI), an ambitious goal that implies commitment to beyond NNL, and which has recently received increasing attention from both big business and environmental NGOs. We build upon three ways to deliver NPI: (i) use of an additional NPI multiplier, (ii) using permanent offsets to deliver additional gains after NNL has first been reached during a shorter offset evaluation time interval, and a (iii) novel modification of the mitigation hierarchy so that gains from its traditional third step, onsite rehabilitation, can no longer be counted towards reduced offset requirements. The outcome from these three factors is that for the same ecological damage, larger offsets will be required than before, and earlier, thereby necessarily improving the success expected from offsets. As a corollary, we show how offsets really are NNL only at one ephemeral point in time, before which they are net negative and after which they turn into either net positive impact or net negative impact, depending on whether permanent offsets are combined with partially temporary losses or if temporary offset gains are combined with partially permanent losses. While we provide operational guidance on how to achieve NPI, it should be understood that achieving it is fully conditional on prior achievement of NNL, and offsets have indeed been frequently observed to fail due to inadequate policy requirements, incompetent planning or incomplete implementation. Nevertheless, achieving NPI becomes straightforward if NNL can be credibly reached first. Article impact statement: Achieving a net positive impact of biodiversity offsetting is straightforward if no net loss can be credibly reached first. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

中文翻译：

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通过生物多样性抵消产生净积极影响的三种方法

生物多样性抵消是利用栖息地恢复、管理或保护等保护行动来补偿因开发活动（包括建设项目）造成的生态损失的做法。抵消的典型目标是无净损失 (NNL)，这意味着所有生态损失都由相应的抵消收益来补偿。这项工作的重点是对净积极影响 (NPI) 的概念和方法论探索，这是一个雄心勃勃的目标，意味着对超越 NNL 的承诺，并且最近受到大型企业和环境非政府组织的越来越多的关注。我们建立在提供 NPI 的三种方式上：(i) 使用额外的 NPI 乘数，(ii) 在较短的偏移评估时间间隔内首次达到 NNL 后，使用永久偏移来提供额外的收益，(iii) 对缓解层次结构的新颖修改，使其传统第三步现场修复的收益不再计入减少的抵消要求。这三个因素的结果是，对于同样的生态破坏，需要比以前更大的补偿，而且更早，从而必然会提高补偿预期的成功率。作为推论，我们展示了抵消如何仅在一个短暂的时间点真正是 NNL，在此之前它们是净负面影响，之后它们变成净正面影响或净负面影响，这取决于永久抵消是否与部分临时性相结合损失或如果临时抵消收益与部分永久性损失相结合。虽然我们提供有关如何实现 NPI 的操作指导，应该理解的是，实现这一目标完全取决于先前实现 NNL，并且确实经常观察到由于政策要求不充分、规划不力或执行不完整而导致抵消失败。然而，如果可以首先可靠地达到 NNL，那么实现 NPI 就变得简单了。文章影响声明：如果不能首先可靠地达到净损失，则实现生物多样性抵消的净积极影响是直截了当的。本文受版权保护。版权所有。如果不能首先可靠地达到净损失，那么实现生物多样性抵消的净积极影响就很简单。本文受版权保护。版权所有。如果不能首先可靠地达到净损失，那么实现生物多样性抵消的净积极影响就很简单。本文受版权保护。版权所有。