Land artificialization is the primary cause of the degradation of natural environments and biodiversity. In France, the regulatory system whose objective is to avoid environmental damage, to reduce those which could not be sufficiently avoided and to compensate for the effects which could neither be avoided nor sufficiently reduced is known as the sequence name ERC (“avoid, reduce, compensate”). When biodiversity is degraded by a development project, and if the measures aimed at reducing or avoiding the impacts of this project are insufficient, compensatory measures must be implemented. A compensatory measure for damage to biodiversity applies to the residual impact of a development project, when all possible measures have been implemented to avoid and then reduce negative impacts on biodiversity. It aims to offer a positive counterpart to a non-reducible damaging impact caused by a project, so as to maintain biodiversity in an equivalent or better state compared to that observed before its implementation. Compensatory measures take the form of rehabilitation, restoration or environmental creation actions. They must be supplemented by conservation management measures (e.g.: extensive grazing, maintenance of hedges, etc.) in order to ensure that the environmental quality of the environments is maintained. This provision of compensatory measures for attacks on biodiversity provides access to the location of approximately 3,000 measures prescribed in administrative acts. The information characterizing each measurement is described in the attribute data. Only environmental compensatory measures (within the meaning of L.122-1-III of the environmental code) are represented (for example, collective agricultural compensation or forestry compensation are not concerned). Mapping concerns the measures prescribed in administrative acts. The absence of measurements on the map does not mean the non-existence of measurements on the ground. Certain measures prescribed before the publication of the law of August 8, 2016 for the reconquest of biodiversity may not be present. Certain orders drawn up before 2016 do not provide information on the geolocation of the measures and therefore cannot be mapped precisely but only at the municipal level. Regular updating (old administrative acts or addition of recently prescribed measures) is planned.
