Biodiversity Offsetting: Opportunities and Challenges

In many cases there are opportunities to plan and manage extraction using innovative
and creative techniques such as biodiversity offsetting to mitigate potential
environmental impacts. Biodiversity offsetting has become a popular topic in the
planning and conservation community and there are precedents that prove that this
technique can work effectively to achieve results for both the aggregate industry and for
environmental protection.
Offsetting, or compensation, may occur under an environmental assessment process as
well as through the municipal land use planning process.
This presentation focuses initially on the opportunities and challenges in the context of
the land use planning process in Ontario and then focuses on the practical opportunities
and challenges as experienced in an aggregate extraction project in the Township of
Clearview in the County of Simcoe.