Ecological compensation
The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency funds, together with the Norwegian Sea and Water Authority, seven research projects that will contribute to more knowledge about ecological compensation. The research is ongoing in 2018–2020.
Even when great environmental concern is taken during development, negative consequences for the natural environment often arise. Sometimes this impact can be offset by compensatory measures, i.e., measures to offset the negative effect of an exploitation. The goal of the research effort is that ecological compensation will become a more effective control tool to achieve the environmental goals.
Ecological compensation is a policy tool that has so far been used to a relatively limited extent in Sweden, but which has the potential to contribute to reducing the loss of biodiversity and the ecosystem services that ecosystems maintain.
For ecological compensation to be able to develop into a more effective policy instrument in Sweden, more knowledge is needed about which compensation methods work in different natural environments, as well as how compensation is best integrated into different types of land use decisions.
The results from the research effort must be able to be used as a basis for the development of ecological compensation in Sweden and can contribute to the work with policy development and guidance in the area.
The total budget for the investment is SEK 27 million.
MuniComp: Ecological compensation as a policy tool – a municipal perspective
The project has investigated experiences of and prerequisites for applying environmental compensation within a municipal planning context. The project has examined environmental compensation as a policy instrument, the application of the mitigation hierarchy, the design of compensation models and procedures, the use of different frameworks for assessing losses and gains, and the public’s preferences for different compensation options. The project has been carried out in close co-operation with Helsingborg and Lomma municipalities. Kommunförbundet Skåne has been the project’s communication partner and organizer of several major meetings and workshops with officials from many municipalities in Skåne.
The conclusions of the project can be summarized as follows:
- Despite the lack of clear legal support in the Planning and Building Act to claim compensation, several Swedish municipalities apply compensation today, and many see it as a future development in the municipality.
- The current Planning and Building Act represents a strong restriction for an efficient implementation of environmental compensation and changes in the Act according to the propositions in SOU 2017:34 are necessary to make environmental compensation in municipal planning a strong policy instrument related to the Swedish work for the national environmental objectives.
- There are major differences between municipalities in how they work with compensation. The experience that exists in these pioneer municipalities provides an important basis for further development of compensation in municipal planning in Sweden.
- There is clear public support in Skåne’s urban areas for applying environmental compensation.
- Further development of procedures and structures are needed to set targets and to follow up and evaluate the compensation measures implemented.
- Further procedures are needed to set targets and to follow up and evaluate the compensation measures implemented.
- There is no uniform approach to the design of compensatory measures and to how compensation needs should be assessed and balanced against the benefits of the compensatory measures. Methods for assessing the values created by compensation need to be developed in order to become more applicable in Swedish municipalities.
- The lack of quantifiable targets related to the use of environmental compensation, and lack of assessment, follow-up, and documentation of the values created by implemented compensation measures, makes it difficult to evaluate the effect of using environmental compensation as a policy instrument in municipal planning. Still it is reasonable to believe that the implemented measures have contributed to a reduced loss of environmental values.
Project leader
Ingemar Jönsson, Högskolan i Kristianstad
Effects of ecological compensation on the environment and economy
Project leader
Jonas Nordström, Lunds universitet
SEEK – Systematizing ecological knowledge to optimize ecological compensation
Project leader
Lina Widenfalk, Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet
ECBES – When can ecological compensation conserve ecosystem services and biodiversity?
Project leader
Erik Öckinger, Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet
ECOCOA – Ecological compensation in coastal areas
Project leader
Lena Bergström, Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet
Ecological compensation pools in the agricultural landscape ECOPAL
Project leader
Katarina Elofsson. Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet
Ethical aspects of ecological compensation. Legal responsibility and social justice
Project leader
Karin Edvardsson Björnberg, Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan
- Towards ecosystem-based aquatic management
- Multifunctionality at the landscape level – the LANDPATHS programme
- Handling invasive species
- Contaminated sediments
- Wetland ecosystem services
- Cumulative effects on the environment
- Microplastics
- Management strategies at landscape level
- Ecological Assessment of Swedish Water Bodies
- The Ecosystem Approach – Practical experiences and next steps