The Offset Design Process
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BBOP Pilot Project Case Study – Ambatovy Project
Specific avoidance strategies include the use of conservation barriers to physically isolate the on-site azonal
conservation areas from construction activities in surrounding areas and ensure that modification of the mine
footprint follows a strict environmental protocol (see Appendix 4: Protocol for Mine Area Modification).
A very substantial minimisation programme was implemented through the BMP. Significant activities include:
Directional and paced forest clearance to optimise the natural migration of terrestrial fauna. Clearance
procedures are provided to the forest clearing team manager as part of Forest Clearing Biodiversity Action
List procedure; the proper implementation of the actions is monitored on a daily basis by the mine
environmental team and any deviation reported for immediate corrective action.
Repetition of full biological surveys in the clearing perimeter and surrounding areas prior to any forest
clearance in order to inventory fauna taxa present, particularly priority species (IUCN Endangered [EN] and
Critically Endangered [CR] categories) but also including lemurs, other mammals, birds, reptiles and
amphibians. The surveys facilitate the development of taxa-specific mitigation measures. For example, a
representative sample of individuals from all lemur species are captured and fitted with radio collars and
subcutaneous microchips in order to monitor their ability to migrate from an area as it is cleared and the
receiving populations’ behaviour on arrival of displaced groups in their territory. For plants, a list of species
of concern (SOC) was drawn up during ESIA baseline studies in collaboration with the Project’s botanical
expert partner. Pre-clearance work involves identifying whether SOC are present in the clearing perimeters
and searching for these SOC outside the mine footprint (in protected areas) to avoid potential species
extinction. For fish in streams, a spatial and genetic survey (endemicity assessment) was conducted to
determine whether the species present were
ENDEMIC
to the mine footprint. Until genetic results became
available, fish from impacted streams were recovered and temporarily maintained in aquaculture systems;
subsequent management actions are currently being undertaken.
Monitoring of fauna during and after clearance. For example, lemur spatial dispersion is monitored during
forest clearance to assess their capacity to (i) migrate (avoid immediate impacts); (ii) settle in their new
home range (a medium-term impact) and (iii) reproduce and maintain population viability (a long-term
impact). Biomedical health is assessed in parallel to behavioural assessments with the aim of improving
analysis of trends in the Project’s long-term lemur population viability assessment programme.
Salvaging activities focused on fauna likely to require human aid to migrate towards refuge areas (the
conservation zones shown in green on Figure 3). A crew of 80 technical agents was trained by experts to
identify and salvage all small mammals, stranded lemurs, nocturnal birds and herpetofauna. Systematic
salvage of these taxa was undertaken for all mine, pipeline and plant site clearings, under the supervision
of external experts (e.g. biologists from the University of Antananarivo) and the Ambatovy biodiversity
team. Taxa were logged and relocated / monitored in refuge areas. Limited salvaging of flora was also
conducted. Some SOCs required ex situ conservation, with individuals translocated to a dedicated on-site
area while searches for the SOC in areas outside the footprint were completed; cells from these SOC were
collected for micro-propagation and cryoconservation as a back-up. To date all SOC surveys have lead to
the identification of off-site
VIABLE POPULATIONS
, and the Project and its botanical partners remain confident
that this will be the case for all remaining SOCs. In the event that SOC are not found, then the
aforementioned mitigation will be applied.
