Global biodiversity offsetting doesn’t work – keep schemes local, say experts

Great Avon Wood, a community forest in the west of England, which has a programme to plant 40,000 trees supplied by the Woodland Trust. Photograph: Alexander Turner

International biodiversity offsetting “doesn’t work”, according to experts aiming to create a nature market that avoids the pitfalls of carbon offsets.

The biodiversity sector has been circling the idea of a credits market that would allow companies to finance restoration and preservation of biodiversity, deliver “net-positive” gains for nature, and help plug the $700bn (£540bn) funding gap.