Secretariat

The role and function of the BBOP Secretariat was to coordinate and execute the programme of work of BBOP under the guidance of the Advisory Group, and particularly its Executive Committee. Forest Trends and Conservation International provided the Secretariat for BBOP from 2004-2009, and Forest Trends and the Wildlife Conservation Society were the Secretariat from 2009-2018.

Advisory Group

BBOP’s Advisory Group was a collaboration of 130 companies, financial institutions, government agencies, civil society organizations and service providers.   The Advisory Group provided a global, multi-stakeholder forum for networking and reaching agreement upon standards of best practice for biodiversity offsets and conservation banking. A list of Advisory Group members over the life of the programme is available here.

Advisory Group members all support the BBOP Principles on Biodiversity Offsets.  In annual meetings, members would meet to develop BBOP documents, would try them out in pilot projects and take part in Community of Practice events such as conferences and webinars.

 Executive Committee

A seven member Executive Committee elected from the broader Advisory Group guided BBOP’s strategic decision making process.

Role and function: The BBOP Advisory Group established an Executive Committee (ExComm) as a small body representing the various groups that comprise the Advisory Group to take decisions needed to run the program on behalf of the full Advisory Group.  ExComm members were elected by the Advisory Group.

Composition: The ExComm comprised the following seven members, representing the different groups present on the Advisory Group:

  1. Business – Companies with a footprint on biodiversity for which they may need a biodiversity offset. Will include at least one large company – 2 representatives 
  2. Civil society (including at least one environmental organization and may also include a development or indigenous peoples’ / community organization) – 2 representatives
  3. Financial institutions – 1 representative
  4. Government and intergovernmental organizations – 1 representative
  5. Secretariat –   1 representative

Community of Practice

BBOP’s Community of Practice was a network of over 2300 people and a forum for the growing number of organizations and individuals working on various aspects of the mitigation hierarchy, including biodiversity offsets. It’s purpose was to enable anyone – whether a BBOP member or not – to share practical experiences, skills and lessons learned.