Name: Lauren Raymor
Title of Article: A database of schemes that prioritize sites and species based on their conservation value: focusing business on biodiversity.
Author (s): Arthur G. Blundell and Tormod V. Burkey
Publication: BMC Ecology
Year: September 2007 This article examines the effectiveness and usefulness of the schemes commonly used by businesses to evaluate where biodiversity offsets need be. Biodiversity offsets are essentially, the counter action taken by businesses that can offset environmental damages inflicted on the environment by operation. It is unfortunate, but it has been shown that if a business has to evaluate these issues from inside the company and in turn, pay the costs of the research and planning, it has been less likely to actually take place. The article explains “companies prefer to consult already completed schemes that rank sites rather than conduct the conservation planning themselves” (Blundell, A. & Burkey, T, 2007),. There in, propelled the necessity of forty commonly used schemes to asses priority levels and establish when and to what extent, conservation and biodiversity offsets are needed. The problem within companies using these already completed schemes is that the focus is mainly on endangered species and seem to be short-term based , while avoiding focus on current threat levels and importance of future environmental concerns. While these schemes do play a part in the process of alerting businesses of large scale conservation issues, they tend to be very broad in concern, covering whole countries by labeling them “hotspots”. It states in the article that Most of the earth's surface (79%) appears in at least one of the nine leading terrestrial-based schemes. It is pointed out that companies need to work on conservation offsets on a more “site-based” idealism. They need to have