LA DESTRUCTION RÉGLEMENTÉE

The report critiques biodiversity offsetting as a mechanism of 'regulated destruction' that replaces strict environmental limits with flexible, market-based compensation. It contends that these systems—including biodiversity banks and carbon credits—often lead to a net increase in environmental damage, facilitate land grabbing from indigenous and local communities, and provide a veneer of sustainability for destructive industries such as mining, agribusiness, and aviation. Through case studies in India, Uganda, Canada, Colombia, Brazil, and Costa Rica, the document demonstrates how the promise of future restoration is used to justify immediate, irreversible ecological loss.

• Biodiversity offsetting undermines environmental protection by allowing companies to ignore pollution limits or nature protection rules in specific areas by promising to protect or restore biodiversity elsewhere.
• The process of offsetting requires a conceptual shift where nature is viewed not as a unique place, but as a set of separable 'goods and services' or 'natural capital' that can be quantified and traded.
• The World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC) Performance Standard 6 facilitates the financing of destruction in 'critical habitats' by allowing companies to use biodiversity offsets to justify such projects.
• In India, the Compensatory Afforestation Fund has accumulated over 500 billion rupees (6.8 billion dollars) as of 2016, yet vast forest areas have been destroyed without the promised reforestation taking place.
• The REDD+ program is criticized as a tool for 'greenwashing' that allows agribusiness and food multinationals to claim 'zero net deforestation' while continuing industrial-scale deforestation by purchasing cheap credits that limit peasant agriculture.
• Biodiversity offsets are often unreliable for long-term protection; in Uganda and Australia, sites previously set aside as offsets were later destroyed for new corporate projects, such as dams or coal mines.
• The aviation industry uses carbon offsetting through schemes like CORSIA and 'green airport' certifications to maintain growth and avoid strict emissions regulations, often excluding the primary emissions from flights in their neutrality claims.

APA

Kill, J. (n.d.). LA DESTRUCTION RÉGLEMENTÉE. Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/foe-FoN2-regulated-destruction-FR-WEB.pdf

Chicago

Kill, Jutta. LA DESTRUCTION RÉGLEMENTÉE. Friends of the Earth International, n.d. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/foe-FoN2-regulated-destruction-FR-WEB.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Kill |first1=Jutta |title=LA DESTRUCTION RÉGLEMENTÉE |publisher=Friends of the Earth International |url=https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/foe-FoN2-regulated-destruction-FR-WEB.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{killnddestruction, author = {Kill, Jutta}, title = {{LA DESTRUCTION RÉGLEMENTÉE}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/foe-FoN2-regulated-destruction-FR-WEB.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }