Species extinction is continuing unabated and the targets of the UN report on species conservation have all been missed. With the decline in biodiversity and the extinction of species, we are also losing the foundation for our livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life. It is therefore a central task of our society, despite the immense pressure on land, to protect the large number of species still present in Germany, to preserve and enhance habitats for species and to take measures to increase biodiversity.

Despite intensive efforts to avoid interventions as far as possible, unavoidable interventions will still have to be made in the coming years. The legally prescribed nature conservation compensation and species protection measures must then be designed in such a way that they make a valuable and sustainable contribution to species protection.

These "Guidelines for future compensation with added value" show new ways of planning and implementing compensation measures that also address this challenge.

Multifunctional measures that take various ecosystem services into account achieve several objectives in one area and can, for example, combine biotope networks and species protection measures. Measures in biotope networks, both functional and spatial, also strengthen migration corridors for endangered animal species. If measures are planned and implemented sustainably, they can also last in the long term and thus contribute to greater biodiversity for longer. Another aspect is the implementation of production-integrated compensation measures in order to increase diversity and structural variety and thus also biodiversity in the agricultural landscape, which is often cleared in our latitudes.