Abstract
The Province of Alberta has expressed an interest in conservation offsets as a new policy tool to promote land stewardship. The tool is enabled by provisions of the Alberta Land Stewardship Act. This thesis explores what Alberta must do in order to develop and implement an effective and credible conservation offset mechanism. It reviews the concept of conservation offsets and some of the key issues inherent to it. Focussing primarily on legal and regulatory aspects, it reviews the experience of conservation offset regimes for wetlands in the United States and for native vegetation in the State of Victoria, Australia. Drawing lessons from each of these case studies, it considers Alberta’s policy position and makes recommendations for bringing an Alberta conservation offset system to fruition.
