Projects
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Biodiversity Accounting and Offset Cost-Benefit Analysis - Rio Tinto Madagascar
In February 2010, The Biodiversity Consultancy completed an assessment of the total net impacts of a Rio Tinto Madagascar / QIT Madagascar Minerals, a developing ilmenite operation in south-east Madagascar. This included the development of custom-metrics and currencies for different types of biodiversity values (habitats, species and ecosystem services). We also assessed the relative biodiversity benefits of investment in available offset sites by combing methods from REDD carbon with these same biodiversity metrics. This included both like for like and like for not like offsets analyses, possibly the first of it’s kind within this emerging field.
Critical Habitat Assessment, Rio Tinto Simandou (Guinea)
In January 2010, Dr Helen Temple and Dr Jon Ekstrom completed an assessment of Critical Habitat at the Rio Tinto Simandou project, using custom built methods to apply IFC lending criteria to the highly comprehensive biodiversity dataset available for the site. This appears to be the first full scale assessment and application of Performance Standard 6 criteria for any large scale project co-financed by the International Finance Corporation.
Corporate biodiversity policy
Development and implementation of the Rio Tinto biodiversity policy. This includes both the writing of strategy and policy at a global level in a way which suits both ground-level operations and external stakeholders; and implementation through biodiversity action planning with individual business units, operations and mines.
Biodiversity offsets
Biodiversity offsets are an increasingly popular form of long term environmental risk management, with most recent application within the transnational natural resource sector. Biodiversity offsets are sustainable conservation actions intended to compensate for the unavoidable, residual impacts caused by development projects. Used diligently, they can be used to achieve a “no net loss” to biodiversity. The potential benefits and breadth of application of such programmes for biodiversity conservation is immense. The work includes technical development of offset toolkits and policy with the Business and Biodiversity Offset Programme www.forest-trends.org/biodiversityoffsetprogram/. And on-the-ground practical implementation of offsets with private sector clients including Rio Tinto and Sherritt.
Protected Areas management
The Biodiversity Consultancy is managing the development and implementation of a management plan for the Pic de Fon Foret Classee in south-eastern Guinea. This programme is only recently underway and will involve a number of national and international partners. The client, Rio Tinto, regards the conservation of biodiversity, natural resources and the alleviation of poverty as an important component of their engagement in regional environmental and development issues.
KPIs and biodiversity indicators
KPIs for biodiversity are still in their infancy. The biodiversity consultancy is interested in developing this field to facilitate the mainstreaming of biodiversity into corporate reporting and management. Recent work with mining company Rio Tinto has centred on creating an internationally workable system of measuring and comparing the impact of different mining operations on biodiversity. The challenge has been to develop performance measures which are globally aggregable and at the same time relevant to dozens of different operations around the world. Rio Tinto has a strategic goal to have a net positive impact on biodiversity and such a performance and indicator system is required to manage this ambitious aspiration.
Biodiversity surveys in New Caledonia (to France, SW Pacific)
Jonathan Ekstrom directed a 2 year research programme which investigated the ecology and conservation needs of the terrestrial vertebrates of New Caledonia, an island in the south-west pacific. The collaborative work was a type of cross-sector partnership, involving ecologists, foresters and politicians from many organisations Cambridge University, Université de Paris, the DDRP (Province Nord) and DRP (Province Sud) governments New Caledonia, Université de Nouméa, BirdLife International, and the Musée National d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris). Research over 6 months in the forest ecosystems of the island provided baseline biodiversity data and conservation recommendations for forest and species management. Research results included the re-discovery of the a presumed-extinct bird, the New Caledonian Owlet-Nightjar, and two species of gecko were found new to science.
Biodiversity surveys in Cameroon
The Biodiversity Consultancy was recently contracted by the International Finance Corporation / World Bank to conduct rapid assessment type surveys of the terrestrial and marine biodiversity concerning a potental new gas project on the coast of Cameroon. A team of four reviewed the biodiversity context of the sites and surveyed the trees, mammals and birds of the site, in addition to socio-economic assessments of the biodiversity values of local communities.
Cross-sector partnerships for sustainable development
Cross-sector partnerships are partnerships between private, public and / or civil society actors. Examples include public-private partnerships in water utilities, and business-NGO partnerships in environmental issues. Partnership is increasingly regarded as one of the emerging vehicles for the delivery of sustainable development in the current century. Innovative solutions such as the Marine Stewardship Council have emerged from such relations, and many other solutions to biodiversity problems (such as the secondary impacts of extractive industries) are possible through such mechanisms. The director of the biodiversity consultancy worked on the partnership between BirdLife International and Rio Tinto, and completed the Cambridge Programme for Industry “Post-graduate Certificate in Cross-sector Partnership”, a unique course for partnership practitioners held at Cambridge University.
Facilitation and negotiation
External independent advisory committees constitute a growing form of Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility (CSER). Jonathan Ekstrom is currently the external facilitator of the QIT Madagascar Minerals biodiversity advisory committee which meets twice a year to scrutinise and advise on the biodiversity impacts of this large ilmenite mining operation in south-east Madagascar. Over the past few years as the mine has begun construction, the committee has proved an invaluable resource and sounding-board for a company operating in a sensitive environment. Biodiversity performance has improved. And there have been are tangible reductions in environmental impacts and real increments in biodiversity benefits. For example, conservation zones now exist to prevent the loss of all endemic species.
Ecological research in Madagascar
Under a tripartite agreement between the University of Sheffield, BirdLife Madagascar and the Direction des Eaux et Forets, a three year study was organised into the ecology and behaviour of Madagascar’s endemic Vasa parrots. Working with local people based in the village of Marofandilia near the Kirindy forest on the west coast of the island, we studied the Greater Vasa parrot’s ecology, breeding behaviour and relationship with people. The research team consisted of researchers from the Universities of Sheffield and Antananarivo and was much improved by the involvement of the extremely knowledgeable subsistence farmers in Marofandilia and surrounding villages. Behavioural studies were complemented with broader ecological research on subject such as seed predation and dispersal, conducted by Linah Randrianaina from the Université d’Antananarivo.