Economic Return:
Conservation banking provides income through the sale of credits earned by creating conservation and restoration outcomes on private land with private investment. Credits are used to offset unavoidable impacts from projects that choose to outsource their compliance obligations under the Endangered Species Act.
Background Information:
Conservation or endangered species banking is an innovative system for dealing with the impacts to endangered species habitat (also called “takings”) from various human activities, such as road construction and land development. When there are unavoidable takings of a species' habitat, the person, company, or agency seeking the permit must mitigate their impacts on-site or by purchasing credits from a “Conservation Bank.”
Endangered species benefit from banks because they usually create a critical mass of protected area that is more sustainable and manageable than “on site” mitigation in the long-term. Buyers of the credits benefit by transferring the long-term liability of managing endangered species habitat.
Conservation banking is enabled by the legal requirements of the United States Endangered Species Act (ESA). Formal guidance on Conservation Banking was issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in May of 2003. There are currently over 35 formal conservation banks in the United States.
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