Program Overview
A conservation or mitigation bank is permanently protected land that is conserved and managed for its natural resource values. In exchange for permanently protecting, managing, and monitoring the land, the bank sponsor may sell or transfer aquatic resources and/or species/habitat credits to permittees/project proponents that need to meet compensatory requirements for the environmental impacts of projects. Use of mitigation bank credits must occur in advance of project impacts when the compensation cannot be achieved at the project site or would not be as environmentally beneficial.
Conservation Banking
A conservation bank generally protects important habitat including habitat for threatened, endangered, or other special status species that exists, has been, or will be created. Credits are established for the specific sensitive species and habitat. Agencies that typically participate in the regulation and approval of conservation banks are CDFW, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-National Marine Fisheries Service.
Mitigation Banking
A mitigation bank is created to compensate for activities authorized pursuant to Section 404 of the federal Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. Sec. 1344 et seq.) and protects, restores, creates, or enhances wetland habitats. Additionally, mitigation banks may also include the conservation and protection of state and/or federally listed threatened, endangered species and/or habitat. Credits are established to compensate for unavoidable impacts to aquatic resources and/or special status species and/or habitat. Mitigation banks are approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and may also be approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-National Marine Fisheries Service, and State Water Resources Control Board.
Benefits of Conservation and Mitigation Banking
For the buyer or user of credits…
- Cost reductionsover per project Permittee Responsible Mitigation, due to the economies of scale, a larger habitat bank generates and passes on to credit buyers/users together with cost certainty.
- “One stop” permit complianceincluding habitat protection, long-term management, maintenance, and monitoring.
- More efficient. This meansa permittee can likely satisfy mitigation requirements faster buying a credit than creating Permittee Responsible Mitigation.
For the ecosystem…
- Protection and restoration of larger, more functional and longer-lastingecological systems.
- No temporal lossof ecological function because protection/restoration is completed before the impacts occur.
- Managementof the property for aquatic resources, sensitive species and/or their habitats in perpetuity.
- “No Net Loss”in wetland acres at minimum, often with a gain of wetland acres.
- Permanent protectionin the form of a conservation easement or fee title held by a qualified conservation entity, enforced by a qualified third party.