A research consortium for projects studying ecological compensations
The Habitat Bank is an umbrella project analysing and developing the principles of ecological compensation, and piloting compensations in practice. We aim to provide science-based understanding and guidelines for a new market-based mechanism for biodiversity conservation, to complement the existing policy instrument mix. The new mechanism is urgently needed, as the existing instruments have not halted biodiversity loss.
Multidisciplinary research
The interdisciplinary team of the Habitat Bank consists of researchers from University of Helsinki and Finnish Environment Institute. The experts of natural science, economics, social science and law explore and analyse the feasibility of different features of the ecological compensation mechanism together with practitioners. We collaborate with University of Jyväskylä, University of Lapland, Metsähallitus and many stakeholders from business, administration and NGO’s.
Partners and financers
The Habitat Bank consortium has grown from the Biodiversity Now! team, an awardee of the Helsinki Challenge science-based competition. Separate projects within the Habitat Bank have received funding from different sources including the University of Finland, the Kone Foundation, Ministry of the Environment, and the Finnish Innovation Fund SITRA. The Habitat Bank is open for collaboration with different partners. One example of collaboration is a compensation pilot case with Metsähallitus and NCC, where the Habitat Bank has developed metrics to measure biodiversity loss and gain in ecological compensations.
