Project Summary
16
BBOP Pilot Project Case Study – Ambatovy Project
Figure 2: Project components map
While the bulk of the residual biodiversity impact will arise in the mine area and in the upper portion of the
pipeline, the Project’s offset calculation considers residual impacts from each project component including the
entire slurry pipeline, the processing plant, the tailings and the harbour extension. The intention is that all
residual impacts will be offset.
Approximately 90% of the pipeline’s 218 km right of way will require the clearance of secondary, non-sensitive
and mostly non-ligneous vegetation, which has resulted from historical slash and burn and has comparatively
little biodiversity value. Disturbed land will ultimately be rehabilitated using species appropriate to current land
use in the different pipeline sectors (including provision of fuel wood species to reduce pressure on native
forests). However, two sections of the pipeline cross sensitive habitats:
The first 2 km of zonal, near-primary forest at the mine area; these losses are integrated to the mine
footprint loss calculations; and
The Ankeniheny-Zahamena forest corridor area, which led to 16.5 ha of zonal forest being cleared, despite
planning and routing efforts to avoid the residual primary forest fragments present there.
The processing plant, currently under construction, covers 2.6 km
2
of Toamasina’s industrial zone. The
tailings management facility has a footprint of 14 km
2
and is located in a highly degraded, fire-driven
agricultural matrix, where irreversible, human-induced depletion of the original biodiversity occurred during
historical forest clearance. The harbour expansion requires the construction of an extended pier (over 300 m)
to accommodate the unloading of equipment during the construction and the importation of raw material (coal,
sulphur, limestone and diesel) and the loading of nickel and cobalt briquette bags and ammonium sulphate
during operation. At the Project’s industrial complex (plant, tailings management facility and harbour), most of
the biodiversity values were lost many years ago through extensive habitat conversion. The Project’s ESIA
