Environmental Assessment
Volume C-4.1
Slurry Pipeline
Flora
Ambatovy Project
78
January 2006
assessing impacts from the project. A complete description of the baseline
methods, analysis and results are located in Volume J, Appendix 1.1.
4.1.3.1 Vegetation Overview
The dominant vegetation type along the slurry pipeline is tavy (30,778 ha or 85%
of the LSA). This class is largely represented by cleared forest and scattered
shrubby vegetation or trees, often dominated by
Ravenala madagascariens
. This
species is endemic to Madagascar but is widespread and used most frequently for
the walls and roofs of buildings (Rouquette 2002).
The second most common vegetation class is degraded primary forest (1,537 ha
or 4% of the LSA). It represents either heavily logged forest or very small forest
patches that have been invaded with exotic species or have been altered in terms
of species composition and abundance due to edge effects and associated changes
in lighting levels.
Primary forest is the third most dominant vegetation type along the slurry
pipeline corridor (1,403 ha or 4% of the LSA). It primarily occurs within the
overlap area with the mine site LSA and within the Mantadia-Zahamena corridor.
This is zonal forest that may have been sparsely logged but is still structurally
and floristically intact, and contains an assemblage of species that is generally
characteristic of a pristine forest.
There is a relatively small amount of azonal forest, azonal type transitional forest,
and transitional forest at the western end of the slurry pipeline LSA where it ties
in with the mine site facilities.
4.1.3.2 Torotorofotsy Wetlands Vegetation
The Torotorofotsy Wetlands are located southeast of the proposed mine and have
been declared as a Ramsar site by the Madagascar government and by
international and national conservation organizations (Ramsar 2005).
The Torotorofotsy Wetlands primarily consists of herbaceous marsh vegetation
on organic soils
(
Wetlands International 2005
)
. On the Torotorofotsy Wetlands
fringe and along creeks and rivers within the wetlands is a small amount of marsh
edge vegetation on nutrient-poor, inorganic soil. This marsh edge forest contains
dominant to sporadic cover of
Pandanus
. Scattered pasture land, eucalyptus
plantations and groves, and a small but significant portion of rice paddies also
exist in and around the edges of the wetlands.
