Project Summary
17
BBOP Pilot Project Case Study – Ambatovy Project
notes that the industrial complex will have negligible residual impacts on biodiversity, which will nonetheless
be traded up through the Project’s offset programme.
Specific aspects of the biological environment assessed in the ESIA are being revisited through expanded
BASELINE STUDIES
to ensure that residual impacts are fully documented and included in the biodiversity offset
calculation.
The
KEY BIODIVERSITY COMPONENTS
in the mine area and upper slurry pipeline portion can be summarised as:
Priority species, with home ranges overlapping (and or potentially overlapping) the mine footprint:
– 16 lemurs species, including Prolemur simus (IUCN CR), Propithecus d. diadema (IUCN EN), Indri indri
(IUCN EN), Eulemur rubriventer (IUCN VU), Daubentonia madagascarensis (IUCN NT), Hapalemur
griseus (VU), Allocebus trichotis (IUCN DD);
– 62 birds species, including Tyto soumagnei, Anas melleri and Ardea humbloti, Sarothura watersi (all
IUCN EN);
– 123 herpetofauna species, including
Mantella aurantiaca
(IUCN CR),
M. crocea
(IUCN EN),
Sanzinia
madagascariensis
(IUCN VU);
– 5 fish species of which
Rheoles alaotrensis
(IUCN VU) and at least two new
Ratsirakia
species;
– 24 insects species, which are considered rare at a national level;
– 376 plants including
Asteropeia mcphersonii (IUCN VU), Leptolaena multiflora (IUCN EN), Dalbergia
baroni
(UCN VU) and the 330 species of concern which are considered rare in Madagascar;
Three structurally distinct
HABITAT TYPES
: zonal, transitional and azonal forests (the latter including
seasonal ponds and upper watershed stream systems) and their fauna and flora communities; and
The landscape-level habitat assemblage with the functional interaction between the zonal, transitional and
azonal forests.
Section 7.3 presents more detail in the form of a Key Biodiversity Components Matrix (KBCM) and the steps
followed in its completion. The full KBCM (December 2008 iteration) is provided in Appendix 1. Earlier
iterations (February and April 2008) are presented in Appendices 2 and 3 respectively.
3.2 Ambatovy offset programme
The Ambatovy Project offset programme is a multifaceted endeavour to achieve measurable
CONSERVATION
OUTCOMES
resulting in no net loss and preferably a
NET GAIN
of biodiversity. It has been adopted voluntarily to
go above and beyond the Project’s impacts management strategy. The Ambatovy Project intends to
implement its diversified offset portfolio, as presented in Table 2.
