Lessons learned from a 'natural compensation site' experiment: a ridgeline at the interface of different rationales

Abstract

This paper analyses the lessons learnt from an experimental biodiversity offset site in a mid-altitude mountain area, the Combe-Madame in the Alps. The analysis follows three phases of the project, informed by contributions from the sociology of innovations, which allow us to understand the difficulties encountered in the concrete implementation of an experimental offset site project. Two rationales of actors are highlighted: the "innovation promoters" and the "environmental scientists". As a conclusion, mitigation banking appears to be an activity at the crossroads of distinct professional logics, but also as an activity to be conducted on a ridgeline guided by a concern for the effectiveness of environmental policies: offering the possibility of mitigation banking should not create an incentive.