COMPENSACIONES Y CRÉDITOS DE BIODIVERSIDAD: PREGUNTAS FRECUENTES

The document critiques biodiversity offsets and credits, asserting that these mechanisms facilitate continued environmental destruction through 'greenwashing' and risk violating human rights. It argues that nature's complexity cannot be reduced to tradable units and suggests redirecting existing harmful subsidies toward indigenous-led conservation and direct grants instead of market-based instruments.

• Biodiversity offsets and credits are criticized as 'false solutions' that may lead to greenwashing, human rights violations, land grabbing, and the displacement of communities, while failing to provide reliable funding for conservation.
• The document asserts that biodiversity offsets are fundamentally flawed because they ignore the unique characteristics and complexity of ecosystems, which are not interchangeable.
• Private companies engaged in destructive activities are identified as the primary beneficiaries of biodiversity credit markets, as these tools allow them to avoid responsibility and bypass stricter environmental regulations.
• The 'mitigation hierarchy' is often misused in practice, with projects skipping avoidance and reduction steps to move directly to offsets because it is cheaper and requires less technical capacity.
• The document argues that the funding gap for biodiversity should not justify market mechanisms, noting that the UN has identified $1.7 trillion in existing harmful economic incentives that could be redirected.
• Market-based biodiversity instruments are described as incompatible with the worldviews of Indigenous peoples, who view nature as a mother rather than a commodity.
• The document highlights several technical failures in biodiversity credit frameworks, including the lack of agreed metrics, the impossibility of proving 'additionality', and the risk of 'double counting'.

APA

Hache, F., Ching, L. L., Lin, L. L., Fernández, M. I., Marien, N., Kill, J., Dellasta, H., Martínez, V. F., Cabello, J., Witchger, J., Picken, T., Prado, A. A., van der Mark, M., Lingam, T., Gilbertson, T., Gualinga, E. S., & Counsell, S. (2025). COMPENSACIONES Y CRÉDITOS DE BIODIVERSIDAD: PREGUNTAS FRECUENTES. Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20-FoEI-Biodiversity-offsets-FAQ-ES-hr-online-use.pdf

Chicago

Hache, Frédéric, Lim Li Ching, Lim Li Lin, Mirna Ines Fernández, Nele Marien, Jutta Kill, Heitor Dellasta, et al. COMPENSACIONES Y CRÉDITOS DE BIODIVERSIDAD: PREGUNTAS FRECUENTES. Friends of the Earth International, 2025. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20-FoEI-Biodiversity-offsets-FAQ-ES-hr-online-use.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Hache |first1=Frédéric |last2=Ching |first2=Lim Li |last3=Lin |first3=Lim Li |last4=Fernández |first4=Mirna Ines |last5=Marien |first5=Nele |last6=Kill |first6=Jutta |last7=Dellasta |first7=Heitor |last8=Martínez |first8=Valentina Figuera |last9=Cabello |first9=Joanna |display-authors=etal |title=COMPENSACIONES Y CRÉDITOS DE BIODIVERSIDAD: PREGUNTAS FRECUENTES |publisher=Friends of the Earth International |date=2025 |url=https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20-FoEI-Biodiversity-offsets-FAQ-ES-hr-online-use.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{hache2025compensaciones, author = {Hache, Frédéric and Ching, Lim Li and Lin, Lim Li and Fernández, Mirna Ines and Marien, Nele and Kill, Jutta and Dellasta, Heitor and Martínez, Valentina Figuera and Cabello, Joanna and Witchger, Joshua and Picken, Tom and Prado, Amelia Arreguin and van der Mark, Merel and Lingam, Theiva and Gilbertson, Tamra and Gualinga, Emil Sirén and Counsell, Simon}, title = {{COMPENSACIONES Y CRÉDITOS DE BIODIVERSIDAD: PREGUNTAS FRECUENTES}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, year = {2025}, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20-FoEI-Biodiversity-offsets-FAQ-ES-hr-online-use.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }