Mitigation

Mitigation refers to a wide variety of policies, programs, and practices intended to compensate for natural resource impacts. Commonly, these measures have been developed to offset impacts caused by urban development. For instance, an active compensatory wetland mitigation program currently exists in the United States in which wetland impacts are mitigated by restoring or creating wetlands elsewhere. The concept of mitigation can be a somewhat controversial because it implies that the resources (in this case, wetlands) are being adequately compensated. It remains debatable whether human measures to compensate for wetland impacts truly replace the lost functions and values provided by natural wetlands. Other examples of mitigation practices include programs for listed species. Mitigation can also refer to the variety of practices intended to compensate for ...