Social preferences for the design of biodiversity offsets for shorebirds in Australia

Understanding the social acceptability of biodiversity offsets is important to the design of offset policy. We used a discrete choice experiment to quantify preferences of Australians for a migratory shorebird offset in the context of an oil and gas development project. We surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1371 respondents on their preferences for current and prospective offset-policy characteristics via an online questionnaire to inform policy design of the social dimensions related to offset acceptability. The majority of respondents accepted offsetting as a means to allow economic development; the option to reject development (and an offset) was selected in 13% of possible offset scenarios. Substituting protection of a species affected by the development with protection of a more endangered species was a desirable policy characteristic, as was having the offset implemented by a third party or the government rather than the company responsible for the development. Direct offset activities (e.g., improving degraded habitat) were preferred over indirect activities (e.g., a research program), and respondents were strongly against locating the offset at a site other than where the impact occurred. Positive and negative characteristics of offsets could be traded off by changing the number of birds protected by the offset. Our results show that Australians are likely to support increased flexibility in biodiversity-offset policies, particularly when undesirable policy characteristics are compensated for. Entender la aceptabilidad social de las compensaciones de la biodiversidad es importante para diseñar una política de compensaciones. Utilizamos un experimento de opción discreta para cuantificar las preferencias de los australianos por una compensación de aves costeras migratorias en el contexto de un proyecto de desarrollo de gas y petróleo. Encuestamos una muestra representativa nacionalmente de 1371 respondientes sobre sus preferencias por las características actuales y futuras de la política de compensaciones por medio de un cuestionario en línea para informar al diseño de la politica sobre las dimensiones sociales relacionadas con la aceptabilidad de la compensación. La mayoría de los respondientes aceptaron la compensación como un medio para permitir el desarrollo económico; la opción de rechazar el desarrollo de gas y petróleo (y una compensación) fue seleccionada en 13 % de los posibles escenarios de compensación. Sustituir la protección