BETTER RESEARCH

Biodiversity offsets, says the new draft policy, should require “like for like habitat”, comprising the same biodiversity components as those components that would be negatively affected by development, but this is easier said than done, says Lemson Betha, the head of ecological infrastructure at Wessa and Morgan Griffiths, the organisation’s environmental governance manager. “The evaluation of the target site and the offset site needs to be done to a high degree and standard. We want a wetland for a wetland, but the one needs to have the same ecological value as the other one. The offset will result in the loss of one ecological feature when you had two,” they said. “It is up to the public and the Department of Environmental Affairs to be vigilant and to ensure that those who are doing these studies are competent.”