A Nationwide Survey of Conservation Banks

Excerpt from Introduction

A conservation bank is a parcel of habitat that is managed for the protection of sensitive species and used to offset impacts to these species occurring on nonbank lands. Federally certified conservation banks are designed to protect federally listed threatened or endangered species. Conservation banks also may be established when state or local ordinances require mitigation for impacts to sensitive habitats or species that may not be federally listed. The protection of species in conservation banks generates conservation “credits” that can be used to mitigate species impacts, or “debits.”

Conservation banking transferred the concept of wetland mitigation banking into the area of conservation of threatened and endangered species. Officially, wetland mitigation banking focuses on creating, restoring, or enhancing the function and value of wetlands. Establishing wetland mitigation banks allowed larger wetland areas to be restored and simplified the mitigation process for developers. Without mitigation banks, developers needed to mitigate wetland projects case by case, often creating small, isolated wetlands with little long-term habitat value. In contrast to wetland banks, conservation banks usually focus on preserving large areas of existing habitat with long-term value for a specific species, which can effectively mitigate the loss of isolated or fragmented habitat areas. (Click here for the paper)

Source: Stratus Consulting Inc. 2003. “A Nationwide Survey of Conservation Banks.” Prepared for the Northwest Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries, Seattle, WA.

For more information, please contact: Mark.Plummer@noaa.gov