Restoration is possible for plant assemblages and ecosystem services (water regulation, carbon sequestration, erosion control) but questionable for rarer invertebrates. Main ecosystem service: carbon sequestration. Securing biodiversity outcomes in advance of development impacts is the basis of the biobanking approach to offsetting used in Australia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United States, and the proponent-led biobanking national programme in Canada.4 However, biobanking programmes often allow some sales of biodiversity credits to occur in advance of their creation to help finance the project.