Prescribed compensatory measures for biodiversity damage — France

The artificialisation of soils is the leading cause of the degradation of natural environments and biodiversity. In France, the regulatory framework aimed at avoiding damage to the environment, reducing those which could not be sufficiently avoided and compensating for effects which could not be avoided or sufficiently reduced is known as the ERC sequence (‘avoid, reduce, compensate’). Where biodiversity is degraded by a development project, and if the measures to reduce or avoid the impacts of that project are insufficient, compensatory measures must be implemented. A compensatory measure for biodiversity damage occurs on the residual impact of a development project, when all possible measures have been implemented to avoid and then reduce the negative impacts on biodiversity. It aims to offer a positive counterpart to a non-reducible harmful impact caused by a project, so as to maintain biodiversity in an equivalent or better condition compared to that observed before its implementation. Compensatory measures are implemented through rehabilitation, restoration or creation of environments. They must be supplemented by precautionary management measures (e.g.: extensive grazing, hedge maintenance, etc.) to ensure that the environmental quality of the environment is maintained. This provision of compensatory measures for biodiversity damage allows access to the location of approximately 3,000 measures prescribed in administrative acts. The information characterising each measure is described in the data awarded. Only environmental compensatory measures (within the meaning of L.122-1-III of the Environmental Code) are represented (e.g. collective agricultural compensation or forest compensation are not concerned). Mapping refers to the measures prescribed in administrative acts. The lack of measurement on the map does not mean that there are no measurements on the ground. Certain measures prescribed before the publication of the law of 8 August 2016 for the reconquest of biodiversity may not be present. Some decrees written before 2016 do not provide information on the geolocation of measurements and can therefore not be mapped precisely but only at the scale of the municipality. Regular updating (former administrative acts or addition of recently prescribed measures) is foreseen. __Origin__ The data are extracted monthly from the Departmental Application GeoMCE. The Cerema checks, corrects and ventilates these extractions into 4 geographical tables: point, linear, surface measurements that are precisely located and municipalities that host compensatory measures but whose location is not known. __Partner organisations__ CEREMA, Office of Plans, Programmes and Projects (CGDD/SEEIDD/I3DPP2) __Links annexes__ * [basketDownloadFrontalParametrage](https://catalogue.cdata.cerema.fr/geosource/panierDownloadFrontalParametrage?LAYERIDTS=8497148) * [direct download of data](https://catalogue.cdata.cerema.fr/rss/atomfeed/atomdataset/48ac3589-499d-4f42-9716-73b4eefef35c) [See this page on geo.data.gouv.fr](https://geo.data.gouv.fr/fr/datasets/5d6638a62d4e7f071efea91ca171335103cc662d)