Growing awareness of the global decline in biodiversity has led to increasing no net loss requirements and corporate commitments.
[23] Requirements for NNL are often included as part of biodiversity offsetting policies or regulations for environmental impact assessments.
[32][33] Since the early 2000s, some Australian states have had their own no net loss policies as part of biodiversity offset schemes, either as a regulatory requirement or a voluntary commitment.
For example, the BioBanking program in New South Wales established in 2008 or the Native Vegetation Management Framework (NVMF) that ran from 2002 to 2013 in Victoria.
[36] NNL is part of biodiversity offsetting and habitat banking regulations released by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development.
[37] Under these regulations, all projects that need environmental licences must achieve "no net loss", guided by the application of the mitigation hierarchy as a further requirement.
[38] The methods set out to achieve the no net loss policy, including habitat banks, have been criticised as a way of commodifying wildlife and prioritising profit over ecological benefits.
As a framework for achieving no net loss, the mitigation hierarchy is part of France's Environmental Impact Assessment laws, referred to as the ERC sequence (Avoid-Reduce-Compensate, French: éviter-réduire-compenser).
[43] As a member state of the European Union, France is also subject to the Nature Restoration Law, which includes a target of "no net loss of green urban space and tree cover by 2030".
[45] There are no legal requirements for no net loss in Madagascar, however, offsets have been used by mining companies to compensate for environmental impacts there as part of voluntary commitments.
[46] The Ambatovy mine in Madagascar was on track to achieve its goal of no net loss of forests by using biodiversity offsets according to research by scientists at the University of Bangor.
[47] However, the study was unable to determine whether there was no net loss of biodiversity there and concerns were raised that these offsets might restrict the ability of Malagasy people to access forest resources.
[51] ESIAs assess the potential social and environmental impacts of a proposed development, as part of the planning process.