Mitigation of coral ecosystem service-related social issues: evidence from a coastal development project in a developing country

Abstract

ABSTRACT Biodiversity offset, with a focus on securing biological validity, is primarily practiced in developed countries. However, various social issues, such as the tradeoff between ecosystem conservation and the use of ecosystem services, have arisen and require attention. To address these issues, this study proposes an approach applicable at the planning stages of coral offsetting. We propose a comparison of the relationship between social characteristics and coral ecosystem services across offset candidate sites, suggest an analysis of restorability and the extent of human dependency on coral ecosystem services as part of the process of selecting an offset site, and confirm the practicability of our approach for a specific case of coral offsetting in a developing country. The results reveal that all candidate sites (even across a small area) have advantages and disadvantages regarding the mitigation of social issues. We further discuss the implications of these results with respect to the sustainable usage of endangered corals.