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Short abstract:

Measuring biodiversity is essential for many societal processes, but how should it be done? This presentation explores habitat experts’ perspective on quantifying biodiversity as a part of developing biodiversity offsetting system in Finland.

Long abstract:

During the early 2020s there has been an increasing interest in biodiversity across the whole society, especially in the private sector. Followingly, there is also a growing pressure to measure biodiversity impacts caused by various human activities. Given that biodiversity is, by default, diverse and complex, it can be assessed, measured, and valued in a multitude of ways. In this presentation, we examine what happens when biodiversity is translated into the language of business and analyze the development of a biodiversity value measurement system related to biodiversity offsetting in Finland. We focus on habitat experts’ perceptions of the development process. Biodiversity offsetting was introduced into Finnish legislation in 2023 and the rules for measuring the ecological value of nature were created. While many existing offsetting systems have chosen a more practice-oriented approach, the Finnish development process was science-led, and the development was conducted collaboratively with habitat experts. As a result, the framework became more complex and detailed than in many other countries. Based on interviews of the habitat experts about their experience, motivation, epistemic stand, and reflection of the process, we explore the recognized benefits, disadvantages, or risks of the created measuring system. Further, we analyze whether and how operationalization of the value of nature affects habitat experts’ notion of biodiversity, and whether all relevant values were included in the framework. Lastly, we explore limitations of the scientific definition and understanding of nature, and the implications this might have on biodiversity and the biodiversity offsetting system.