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BBOP Pilot Project Case Study – Ambatovy Project
About this document
To help developers, conservation groups, communities, governments and financial institutions that wish to
consider and develop best practice related to biodiversity offsets, the Business and Biodiversity Offsets
Programme (BBOP) has prepared a set of Principles, interim guidance and resource documents
1
, including
pilot project case studies, of which this Document
2
is one. All those involved in BBOP are grateful to the
companies who volunteered pilot projects in this first phase of its work.
The ability to test methods and learn from practical experience in a set of pilot projects has played an
important role in the development of the BBOP Principles on Biodiversity Offsets and supporting materials
during the first phase of the programme’s work (2004 – 2008). The Ambatovy Project’s four shareholders
volunteered to undertake pilot projects during BBOP’s first phase, with some joining at the outset, and some
at later stages. While BBOP has offered some support and technical advice to the individual pilot projects
through its Secretariat and Advisory Committee, each pilot project has been directed and managed by a team
employed or contracted by the companies and city council leading the respective projects. Each of the case
studies prepared by the pilot projects explains the approach taken and how close the Project has come to
completing the design of the biodiversity offset concerned, and sets out the developer’s current thinking on the
most appropriate offset. This may change as the Project teams finalise their offset programme design and
further implementation. The nature of the guidance used by the pilot projects has varied according to which
drafts of the evolving BBOP Handbooks were available to them at the time. This and the individual
circumstances and context of each pilot project have affected the extent to which they have used or adapted
the BBOP guidance. Consequently, the case studies do not necessarily reflect the range of interim guidance
currently presented in BBOP’s Biodiversity Offset Design Handbook, Cost-Benefit Handbook and
Implementation Handbook.
This Document has been provided by the Ambatovy Project subject to the limitations set out herein.
The Ambatovy Project is still working on the design of the proposed biodiversity offset discussed in this case
study. Consequently, none of the suggested or projected activities based on fieldwork to date represent a
commitment on the part of The Ambatovy Project, it shareholders or potential partners to proceed with the
offset as described in draft form in this Document. Such commitment is the subject of continuing internal
discussions. The information and data relating to possible offset sites, areas and activities are presented here
to communicate the initial work that has been done on a potential offset design and to illustrate one possible
approach to the design of a biodiversity offset intended to comply with the BBOP principles.
Where data supplied by external sources, including previous site investigation data, have been used, it has
been assumed that the information is correct unless otherwise stated. No responsibility is accepted by the
Ambatovy Project for incomplete or inaccurate data supplied by others.
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The BBOP Principles, interim guidance and resource documents, including a glossary, can be found at
/
. To assist readers, a selection of terms with an entry in the BBOP
Glossary has been highlighted thus: biodiversity offsets. Users of the Web or CD-ROM version of this document can move their
cursors over a glossary term to see the definition.
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This case study was prepared by Pierre O. Berner, Steven Dickinson and Aristide Andrianarimisa.
