Biodiversity Offsetting and the Production of 'Equivalent Natures': A Marxist Critique

Evangelia Apostolopoulou (), Elisa Greco () and William Adams
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Evangelia Apostolopoulou: Department of Geography [Cambridge, UK] - CAM - University of Cambridge [UK]
Elisa Greco: ESPOL - European School of Political and Social Sciences / École Européenne de Sciences Politiques et Sociales - ICL - Institut Catholique de Lille - UCL - Université catholique de Lille
William Adams: Department of Geography [Cambridge, UK] - CAM - University of Cambridge [UK]

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Abstract: In this paper we explore the logic of biodiversity offsetting, focusing on its core promise: the production of 'equivalent natures'. We show how the construction of equivalence unravels the environmental contradictions of capitalism by exploring how and why it is achieved, and its profound implications for nature-society dialectics. We focus on the construction of an ecological equivalence between ecosystems, the construction of ecological credits that are considered equivalent in monetary terms, and, finally, the construction of an equivalence between places. The existing critical literature, in some cases implicitly and unwittingly, assumes that biodiversity offsetting creates value. In contrast to this argument, we draw onMarx's labortheory of value to conclude that in the majority of instances offsetting does not create value, rather it is an instance of rent. We also draw on Marxist analyses on the production of nature and place to show that biodiversity offsetting radically rescripts nature as placeless,obscuring the fact that it facilitates the production of space, place, and nature according to the interests of capital while emphasizing that at the core of offsetting lie social struggles over rights and access to land and nature. Biodiversity offsetting's dystopian vision for the future makes it an important focus for all critical scholars seeking to understand and challenge the contradictions of the capitalist production of nature.

Date: 2019-09-16
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env, nep-hme and nep-pke
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Published in ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, 2019

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-02441026

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