Authors: Droste, Nils; Alkan Olsson, Johanna;Hanson, Helena;Knaggård, Åsa ;Lima, Guilherme Rodrigues;Lundmark, Linda; Thoni, Terese;Zelli, Fariborz;

We analyze the development of biodiversity offsetting governance through a research-weaving approach. Here, we combine information from a systematic review of the literature with a qualitative analysis of the institutional developments in different world regions. Through this triangulation, we synthesize and map the different developments of biodiversity offsetting governance around the globe over the last few decades. We find that there is a global mainstreaming of core principles such as avoidance, no-net-loss, and the mitigation hierarchy. Similarly, pooling and trading of offsets for unavoidable residual damages becomes more widespread. Furthermore, we can observe an ongoing diversification of institutional designs, and actors involved. Together this constitutes an emerging regime complex of biodiversity offsetting governance that comes with both a set of shared norms and a growing institutional complexity. While this may imply institutional innovation through diversification and policy experimentation, it also raises questions regarding the effectiveness of different offsetting practices.