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Conservation and concealment in SpeciesBanking.com, USA: an analysis of neoliberal performance in the species offsetting industry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

J. PAWLICZEK  and
S. SULLIVAN
J. PAWLICZEK
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Environment and Development Studies (GEDS), Birkbeck College, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK
S. SULLIVAN*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Environment and Development Studies (GEDS), Birkbeck College, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK
*
*Correspondence: Dr Sian Sullivan e-mail: [email protected]
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Summary

Market-based strategies are promoted as neoliberal governance solutions to environmental problems, from local to global scales. Tradable mitigation schemes are proliferating. These include species banking, which enables payments for the purchase of species credits awarded to conserved areas to offset development impacts on protected species elsewhere. An analysis of species banks in the USA through a survey of data from the website www.SpeciesBanking.com (established as a ‘clearing house’ for species banking information) was complemented by questionnaire material from USA bank managers. The number of USA species banks has increased rapidly, bank area ownership and management is consolidated in a small number of organizations, and public information on species credit price is limited. In interrogating the case material, the roles of specific economic policies associated with neoliberalism are considered, focusing on the extension of privatization, de- and re-regulation and marketization into the arena of environmental conservation, and commodification processes as manifested in species banking. Problematic ecological and distributive ‘concealments’ in species banking include the ‘development-led’ nature of conservation banking, tendencies towards net biodiversity loss, and an emphasis on supporting conservation-related wealth accumulation by larger landowners and investors.

Keywords

biodiversitycommodificationecosystem servicesmarketsmitigationneoliberal conservationspecies bankingSpeciesBanking.com
Type
THEMATIC SECTION: Payments for Ecosystem Services in Conservation: Performance and Prospects
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 38 , Issue 4: Thematic section. Payments for Ecosystem Services in Conservation: Performance and Prospects , December 2011 , pp. 435 - 444
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2011

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