Scientific Consultative Committee
To help Ambatovy fulfill its biodiversity commitments, an independent group of volunteer experts were brought together to form the Scientific Consultative Committee (SCC) in 2009. The committee members provide impartial advice to ensure that our environmental and social commitments are being met, and support the transparency of our actions.
The SCC’s Mandate
The SCC’s mandate is to help us:
Put in place adaptive, state-of-the-art environmental management plans to ensure compliance with the highest national and international standards throughout all of Ambatovy’s phases (Construction, Operations, and Closure);
Avoid, minimize, and mitigate environmental impacts and compensate for unavoidable residual impacts through the implementation of a multi-faceted biodiversity offsets program;
Anticipate and manage environmental risks through stakeholder engagement, public consultation, open communication, and addressing new and emerging environmental risks.
SCC Meetings are held once every 2 years in the November/December period. Usually held at Ambatovy’s offices in Antananarivo, the workshop extends for 3-4 days with a visit to the Mine, Plant, or one of our offset sites, depending on the specific objectives of the meeting. The group’s role is to provide strategic and technical advice, as well as feedback, on Ambatovy’s biodiversity and ecosystem services management strategies, in terms of both planned and implemented actions. The SCC helps guide Ambatovy in our effort to achieve no net loss, and preferably a net gain, of biodiversity while ensuring socioeconomic benefits for our local communities.
Committee Members
The SCC the committee is composed of national and international professionals highly recognized in their respective fields. The various members of the SCC provide Ambatovy with valuable insight and guidance on issues relating to the sensitive environmental and social zones in which we operate. They help enhance our mitigation and offsetting activities, and our contribution to attaining long term and sustainable benefits for local communities and the environment.