The Offset Design Process
40
BBOP Pilot Project Case Study – Ambatovy Project
Benchmark and attributes
A benchmark site was selected (see Figure 6) in line with the BBOP definition and Project-specific criteria
noted above. The benchmark includes a forest tract of 1,149.15 ha, composed of quasi pristine azonal,
transitional and zonal forests, at least two streams and several ephemeral ponds.
Figure 6: BBOP benchmark site map
A limited number of
ATTRIBUTES
were selected as
SURROGATES
for both forest habitat structure and function
based on the following characteristics:
Sensitive
INDICATORS
to habitat quality;
Simple and practical to measure and quantify;
Reliable and repeatable in assessments; and
Reflect outstanding biodiversity values (e.g. species of conservation concern, or
CULTURAL VALUE
).
Due to data limitations (e.g., difficulties faced in obtaining quantitative data for fauna at the impact site), the
present loss calculations are limited to forest structural attributes (streams, number of tree species, canopy
height, basal area and Diameter to Breast Height, Dbh) and the attributes of selected fauna species (lemur
density). Future iterations will include additional attributes as appropriate data become available.
The December 2008 iteration results are presented in Table 3, with
WEIGHTING
assigned to forest habitat and
species attributes according to their relative importance for biological diversity.
