BOOST: Setting the right compensation multipliers to ensure genuine environmental benefits
In a recent article from Boost, Joel Jalkanen, Eini Nieminen, Aapo Ahola, Emma Luoma, Minna Pekkonen, Panu Halme, Janne S. Kotiaho, and Heini Kujala describe how important it is in ecological compensation to get the so-called compensation multipliers right in order to ensure genuine benefits. To ensure this in Finland, Boost led the development of a globally unique method for assessing nature benefits, playfully abbreviated as REHAB (Response-Based Habitat Hectare Assessment of Biodiversity Gains).
Akordi, as Boost’s interaction director, facilitated this collaborative process. The process involved 111 Finnish nature and restoration experts, who assessed all 388 Finnish habitat types as well as 216 habitat type-specific offset actions including restoration, management and passive recovery.
The workshops were praised for giving experts the opportunity to discuss a complex topic face-to-face, with sufficient time. Through this collaborative process, the experts were able to collectively examine the “charts and graphs,” discuss and challenge each other’s views, and reassess their own perspectives based on the shared discussion. After the in-person workshops, it was easier to continue the work remotely, as the participants had already sat down together at the same table, shared the project’s objectives, and gotten to know one another.
The experts involved in the project were highly active and committed to the work, which can be seen as an indication that the development of scientifically credible guidelines for ecological compensation was viewed as an important shared task. Another factor behind this success was the tremendous effort made by researchers in the various research projects to produce, for each situation, the key content necessary for the next phase of work, based on the findings of previous workshops.
The process also received international recognition when Sophus zu Ermgassen, a leading researcher in the field from Oxford, described it in his assessment of Finland’s offset system this spring:
“One of the most legitimate ecologically-informed consensus-based offset calculation methods of any offset system globally.”
Read more in the article, which also includes a brief description of the process for those interested.
