A training session on No Net Loss, Mitigation Hierarchy and Biodiversity Offsets took place on 28 November 2017 in the Higher Hotel and Tourism Industry School of the Eduardo Mondlane University, in the framework of the biodiversity offsets implemented by BIOFUND and by the COMBO/WCS project.

This training is part of the activities of the Civic Partnership for Good Governance (PCBG) programme, implemented by Counterpart International (CPI), which counts on funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The training was undertaken with great support from the Mozambican government, represented by the Inhambane Provincial Directorate of Land, Environment and Rural Development, for about 30 staff members in environmental management, planning, infrastructures, research and various Government sectors and institutions, conservation areas, research institutions, civil society organisations and the private sector in Inhambane province.

The main purpose of this training was to build the capacity of participants in matters concerning biodiversity offsets through introducing the concept of no net loss of biodiversity and the application of the mitigation hierarchy so as to reconcile the development of economic activities with the conservation of biodiversity. It also included contextualisation on the legal framework for the application of the concept of no net loss of biodiversity and the implementation of biodiversity offsets in Africa, and particularly in Mozambique.

The training took place in the context of an exercise of a participatory survey of information about biodiversity in the Pomene National Reserve, undertaken in collaboration with the COMBO project, BIOFUND and the UEM, with the objective of assessing the stage of degradation of key habitats in this conservation area, so as to prepare it for potential implementation of biodiversity offsets.