This informative post from WorldChanging tells the story of Dove Ridge Conservation Bank, a “mitigation bank” for the endangered California vernal pool fairy shrimp. It also claims that while there are some serious problems with the whole concept of “mitigation banking” (and the best parallel I can think of is carbon/pollution credits), Dove Ridge may be the picture of the future. I do agree with Alex that thinking of “wilderness” as “a kind of farm which grew not crops, but biodiversity and ecosystem services” may help stem the tide of destruction of these valuable natural resources. At the same time, Paul Hawken presented this concept over ten years ago…
Technorati tags: ecosystems, biodiversity