When can ecological compensation contribute to sustaining biological diversity and ecosystem services?

If ecological compensation (biodiversity offsetting) is going to be an important tool for halting the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, we need solid knowledge on the factors that promote or impede effective compensation actions. We have conducted two separate literature syntheses about this: 1) A synthesis of scientific peer-reviewed studies that evaluate the effect of ecological compensation on biodiversity or ecosystem services, and 2) A synthesis of scientific studies that evaluate biodiversity restoration actions (a common form of compensation), performed in other contexts than ecological compensation. Our syntheses show that:

• There are large knowledge gaps regarding how well ecological compensation can achieve the goal of not net loss of biodiversity or ecosystem services. Therefore, it is not yet possible to develop evidence-based guidelines on how to design ecological compensation actions.
• Until evidence exists, ecological compensation should not be applied at a large scale as a measure to halt the loss of biodiversity.
• When ecological compensation is used it is, however, important to use general ecological knowledge and draw conclusions from other types of scientific ecology literature when designing compensation actions.
• To be able to identify compensation actions that achieve no net loss of biodiversity or ecosystem services, authorities that demand ecological compensation also need to demand systematic and long-term monitoring of the outcome of these compensation actions.