“Nature cannot always win” – A Q study on stakeholder perceptions on biodiversity offsetting

Iikka Oinonen, Heidi Lehtiniemi, Marianne Aulake and Suvi Huttunen

Ecological Economics, 2025, vol. 237, issue C

Abstract: Biodiversity offsetting (BO) has been a popular tool to tackle biodiversity loss and over 100 countries have adopted it as a part of their conservation efforts. Utilizing Q methodology, which has been rarely used to study BO, we examined the viewpoints of various BO stakeholders in Finland as the country has just introduced BO into their legislation. We found two distinct patterns of perspectives supporting either i) strictly regulated BO to avoid greenwashing, or ii) widespread and flexible BO to ensure corporate needs. There was consensus on some core principles of BO, such as that current conservation commitments cannot be counted as offsetting, and that biodiversity values could be traded up. Interestingly, the stakeholders hesitated to take a stand for the views of local people and the socio-cultural values of biodiversity. As the current Finnish legislation represents a compromise of the different visions for BO, it is not likely to boost BO applications.

Keywords: Biodiversity offsetting; Conservation; Q study; Socio-cultural aspects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:237:y:2025:i:c:s0921800925001934

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108710

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