Nature Swapped and Nature Lost: Biodiversity Offsetting, Urbanization and Social Justice

Introduction Chapter 1. The emergence, evolution and neoliberal origins of biodiversity offsetting 1.1. Neoliberalism and nature 1.2. A brief history of the origins and evolution of biodiversity offsetting 1.3. Key definitions 1.4. Current distribution of biodiversity offsetting and compensation mechanisms across the globe Chapter 2. Biodiversity offsetting and equivalent natures 2.1. Biodiversity offsetting and the construction of ecological equivalence: insights from the technical literature 2.2. Biodiversity offsetting and the construction of ecological equivalence: insights from the critical literature 2.3. Biodiversity offsetting and place Chapter 3. Biodiversity offsetting: Value or Rent? 3.1. Nature, labor and value 3.2. Biodiversity offsetting, value and rent 5 3.3. Urbanization and biodiversity offsetting Chapter 4. Biodiversity offsetting in England: Deepening neoliberal conservation 4.1. Introduction 4.2. Nature conservation in the UK after the 2008 financial crash: consolidating the hegemony of market environmentalism 4.3. Biodiversity offsetting in the UK and neoliberal conservation 4.4. The Defra offset metric: The triumph of simplicity 4.5. Biodiversity offsetting and the role of experts 4.6. Biodiversity offsetting and habitat banking: buying biodiversity "off-the-self" 4.7. Against the framing of the social as irrelevant 4.8. Interregnum: A discussion with an offset metric designer on ecosystem services, biodiversity offsetting and the economic valuation of nature Chapter 5. Biodiversity offsetting, urbanization and the neoliberalization of nature in England 5.1. Offsetting, urbanization and deregulation: "A war on red tape" in post-crisis England 5.2. The convergence of offsetting and urbanization: Rendering conservation part of a development agenda 5.3. Austerity localism, neoliberal urbanization and offsetting 5.4. Biodiversity offsetting, urbanization, and the right to nature 5.4.1. The case of the Whitehouse Farm housing development 5.4.2. The case of the Lodge Hill housing development 5.4.3. The HS2 case: a voluntary adoption of offsetting to greenwash urban development 5.5. When the win-win rhetoric meets the TINA dogma: biodiversity offsetting, neoliberalism and the tyranny of pragmatism Chapter 6: Discussing with the supporters of biodiversity offsetting in England 6.1. Introduction 6.2. Interview with a conservation broker 6 6.3. Interview with a consultant (ecologist) working for the housing industry Chapter 7. Discussing with the opponents of biodiversity offsetting in England 7.1. Interview with a conservationist 7.2. Interview with a local activist opposing a mega-project Afterword References