Taking biodiversity into account in impact studies: promising but incomplete developments

Abstract

It is now recognized that anthropogenic activities are a determining cause of biodiversity erosion. In this context, man attempts to combine environmental and political interests through laws that regulate development and through instruments such as impact studies. The aim of our study is to measure the inclusion of biodiversity through impact studies and to see how it evolves in the face of changes in public policy. The systematic analysis of 42 impact studies shows an improvement in the inclusion of biodiversity in impact studies over time with, among other things, a clear effect on new regulations. However, this improvement remains to be qualified at different levels: e.g. analysis of alternative solutions, cumulative impacts, ordinary species, ecological functionalities, monitoring-evaluation We then put our results into perspective with the contributions of the law of August 2016. Finally, we conclude on the need for a change of scale, towards a proactive and anticipatory approach to the impacts of land use planning well upstream of the project scale, right from the planning stage, in order to move closer to No Net Loss.