Biodiversity offset policies exist at the National and State Government levels to ensure that offsets for residual environmental damages are undertaken in an ecologically equivalent manner.1 However, the policies don’t address whether the wider community accepts all aspects of an ecologically effective offset design. Could community concern reduce the social licence to operate of the proponent responsible for the residual damages? Using discrete choice experiments, we will investigate the preferences that the Australian community hold for different characteristics of marine biodiversity offsets.

AARES Conference 2013