In this CCI Seminar Series event, speakers Ritwick Ghosh (Social Science Research Fellow in the School of the Global Futures at ASU) and Steven Wolf (Environmental Sociologist on the faculty of the Cornell University Department of Natural Resources and the Environment) review existing and emerging models biodiversity offsetting (i.e., compensatory mitigation) to make sense of the contemporary moment and to identify pathways forward. Their historical analysis of the intellectual and political foundations of offsetting highlights important shifts in the way we now talk about design offsetting platforms and policies.

Ritwick Ghosh is a Social Science Research Fellow in the School of the Global Futures at Arizona State University. He draws on economics and sociology to analyze the role of institutions in addressing climate change and biodiversity loss. His expertise lies in market-based solutions such as biodiversity offsetting, carbon markets, and payments for ecosystem services. He has worked in US, Indonesia, and Europe, and is currently studying forest offset schemes in India. Ritwick has worked in multiple international organizations including the UN Environmental Program and in private companies such as the Centennial Group. Ritwick received his PhD in Natural Resources from Cornell University in 2018. He also has a Postdoctoral Fellowship from New York University and a Masters in Public Administration from Cornell University.

Steven Wolf is an environmental sociologist on the faculty of the Cornell University Department of Natural Resources and the Environment. He studied English (UVM), land use planning (UVA), rural sociology (UW-Madison), and environmental economics (UC-Berkeley). He has been a member of the faculty at Imperial College, London, and he currently he holds a Visiting Professorship at Stavanger University, Norway. He teaches environmental governance, and his research is focused on critical institutional analysis; study of the various coordination mechanisms that structure economic activity and social regulation, analysis of the processes through which these various mechanisms are institutionalized and contested, and exploration of alternative coordinating mechanisms.