Abstract
The mitigation hierarchy has been at the heart of French environmental regulations since the EIA process was introduced in 1976. Its application, however, has been patchy, especially concerning compensation for impacts on wildlife. New mechanisms have been put in place and trialed over the last few years so that France now has one of the most comprehensive set of regulations on biodiversity offsets in Europe. In practice, however, the capacity of the country’s offset regime to achieve no net loss is still limited. This chapter provides a synthesis of the current offset system in France and its origin, as well as a way forward. © Springer International Publishing AG 2018.