How the Ambatovy Project is Applying the BBOP Principles
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BBOP Pilot Project Case Study – Ambatovy Project
determine the scale of the offset required to deliver no net loss, to verify that no net loss has been achieved
and to define implementation measures that will ensure the long-term sustainability of the offset.
2. Additional conservation outcomes:
The Project is designing and implementing conservation activities that are predicted to deliver
ADDITIONALITY
,
as summarised below for each of the Project’s components:
The proposed Ankerana offset site is currently being integrated within the recently established SAPM
(National Protected Areas System) under the Durban Vision. However, there is a significant shortfall in the
financial and human resources to offer protection to all these areas and the Durban Vision can only be
implemented if an array of different partners commits to developing the required financial and human
resources. Through the proposed offset, the Project will play a role in that development process.
Historically the azonal forest habitats of Ambatovy and Analamay have suffered significant anthropogenic
impacts (e.g., from hunting and gathering, destructive honey collection, fire, charcoal, slash and burn, and
the pet trade). The long-term survival of this habitat in the absence of the Project is far from proven. This is
clearly seen in the baseline data for the mine area: of the total area of 1,347 ha of azonal forest habitat in
the mine area, only 60% is of prime quality, the rest being significantly degraded before the project was
established. While the mine development is predicted to impact 590 ha of prime quality azonal forest
habitat, 212 ha (26.4% of the total prime quality habitat) will be preserved through the Project’s on-site
azonal habitat conservation initiative. The likelihood of successful conservation of a viable portion of the
unique azonal forest habitat at Ambatovy is therefore significantly increased by the presence of the Project.
Similarly, the zonal forests surrounding the mine footprint have experienced historic anthropogenic impacts
such as forest structure modification (logging), species composition modification though canopy openings
(invaders, heliophytes),
FOREST FRAGMENTATION
through clear cutting, and plain, irreversible loss of forest
areas. The Project has committed to preserving the residual forests of the mine area by, for example,
implementing forest community transfer
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to avoid further anthropogenic losses. Such additionality, if clearly
established, will be included in the offset calculations once data and a model for the rate of regional
deforestation are available.
In the long-term, the forests of the mine area and Mantadia National Park are likely to become isolated
unless the existing forest corridor that links these areas is managed and protected. The loss of this corridor
would cause landscape-level forest fragmentation and jeopardise the long-term viability of populations of
critical species that the project has committed to protect at the mine area. As of December 2008, the forest
corridor has not been included in the first zoning approximation of the Durban Vision. The Project and its
partners plan to create a westerly extension of the Durban Vision zoning to incorporate this area in the
protection zone of the Ankeniheny-Zahamena Corridor. Forest loss avoidance via the successful
management and protection of the corridor will be taken into account in offset calculations based on a fair
assessment of the resulting additionality.
The Ramsar Torotorofotsy site is experiencing considerable pressure from inward migration, the drainage
of wetlands and subsequent conversion to rice paddies, wildfires, slash and burn activities in the forested
watersheds, hunting and the pet trade. The National Committee on Ramsar (CONARAMS) has given a
local NGO (Mitsinjo) the mandate to design and implement a management plan. Ambatovy has joined this
effort as a partner and will work with Mitsinjo and others to enhance the management plan. The first step
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The targeted forest areas are jointly managed with local communities, using a defined management programme that meets
conservation and sustainable use requirements.
