arcelormittal liberia: meeting international environmental .../media/files/a/... · conservation...
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ArcelorMittal Liberia:
Meeting International Environmental Standards
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Social and environmental
safeguards for Project Phase 2
• Detailed Environmental and Social Impact Assessment
prepared over 2 years, building on previous studies.
• Intensive consultations in three campaigns.
• Environmental Protection Agency is currently reviewing.
• Resettlement Action Plan prepared for full compensation.
Includes a long term livelihoods restoration programme.
• Environmental Management Plans to cover all project activities.
• A special Operations, Maintenance and Surveillance Manual for
the tailings dam.
• High environmental standards to be followed.
• Offset Programme being designed to continue and expand on
the Phase 1 Biodiversity Conservation Programme.
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ESIA - Developing an understanding
about management needs of land
• No recent environmental data for Liberia before ArcelorMittal
• Complex environment due to ancient landforms, humid tropical
conditions and scattered population
• To develop an holistic understanding of the environment
required assessment covering a broad range of parameters; for
example:
o All water courses are water supplies for rural dwellings, all
prone to high sediment loads caused by shifting cultivation,
and all contain significant aquatic biodiversity
• ESIA undertaken to inform ourselves and other stakeholders
about the environmental conditions and their interactions
• ESIA currently second biggest in the region, involving over 60
specialist scientists, and 23 universities and other institutions
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Assessment of environmental
impacts
• Communities – Social and Economic
• Cultural Heritage
• Resettlement and Compensation
• Geotechnics
• Soils and Agricultural Potential
• Ground Water
• Surface Water Resources
• Botany – Forests and Plants
• Zoology – Animals and Biodiversity
• Air Quality
• Noise and Vibration
• Landscape and Visual Impacts
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ESIA - Principles of Approach
• Base understanding on sound science
• Ensure full consultation with communities
and other stakeholders
• Develop partnerships with appropriate
NGOs (e.g. Conservation International,
Fauna and Flora International, Afrique
Nature, Sylvatrop, Wild Chimpanzee
Foundation, Action pour la Conservation
de la Biodiversité en Côted’Ivoire
• Allow specialists full independence
• Use environmental findings to inform
design and meet international standards
• Rigorous assessment of potential impacts
• Ensure mitigation or compensation meets
international standards
• Ensure public awareness and availability
of all documentation
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Understand the terrain through
modelling
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Understand the
history
• Example: first known
map of Buchanan –
1890.
• Continuous habitation in
Nimba is thought to date
back only about 500
years.
• Very few archaeological
remains in this forest
dwelling culture with
timber houses etc.
• Coastal occupation
probably longer, but little
is known.
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Monthly rainfall
(30-year
averages
measured from
1950s-70s)
Up to 3.5 metres per year
at Tokadeh mine site and
up to 6.0 metres per year
at the Port of Buchanan
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Average monthly rainfall (mm) at Nimba Mine Area
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Average monthly rainfall (mm) at Lower Buchanan
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Forest Surveys
• 40% of the remaining West African rain
forest is in Liberia
• Huge variety of biomes and species
• Collected over 20,000 specimens
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Flora: thousands of plants
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Biodiversity monitoring:
Large mammals – camera traps
Site G-Y Tokadeh ENNR
Trap nights 377 539 170
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Small mammals, including bats
and pangolins
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Birds: around 400 species
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Butterflies & moths: 750+ species
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Frogs, many are tree-dwelling
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Snakes – 57 species in Nimba
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Nimba otter shrew – only occurs
here – lives on freshwater crabs
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Nimba Toad (Nimbaphrynoides
occidentialis) • Nimba Toad 12 mm long
• Bears live young
• Critically endangered
• Endemic to Mt. Nimba
• Only occurs above 1200 masl on
mountain savannah
• Subspecies N. o. liberiensis only
found on Liberian Nimba
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Socio-economics: a forest-
dwelling rural society
Broad-based population pyramid
• 52.6% are male, despite the war
• Women appear to be badly
disadvantaged at several ages
• More boys than girls under the age of 20
• Fewer males than females in the 20 to
30 year age range (presumably the
effect of war)
• Fewer women than men live beyond 70
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Characteristics of the communities
Limited livelihoods options
• Most households work on a subsistence economy
• Little surplus to sell, even when markets are accessible
• Poor infrastructure
• Very low development
indicators in every sector
• Little formal employment
without migration
• Employment numbers in
ArcelorMittal are small
compared to demand
• A limited tradition of
business beyond petty
trading
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Land capability
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Vegetation cover and hotspots
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Habitat assessment and mapping
Important bird habitats Critical habitats (IFC definitions)
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Environmental constraints (Tokadeh)
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Environmental constraints (Gangra-Yuelliton)
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Biodiversity not only at Mine but
in Coastal Zone close to Port
• Two main communities of
artisanal fisherman
• Catching 77 species
• Beaches are nesting
grounds for endangered
marine turtles
• Lagoons are breeding
grounds for African dwarf
crocodiles
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Transhipment operation
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Tracked handline fishing trips
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Great hammerhead shark
• One of the endangered species among the 77 species known to
be landed at Buchanan by artisanal fishermen.
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Addressing key environmental
impacts
Example: construction material sources
• Avoid all sensitive areas.
• Identification of environmentally sound locations and rejection of
sites we consider unsound, even if they are licensed by
government.
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Addressing key environmental
impacts
Example: air quality assessment
Air quality has been evaluated in detail in the Phase 2 ESIA.
• Most sources are not significant.
• The power plants are potentially very significant polluters. This
is especially the case with ECOWAS fuels.
• By establishing our own importation system and insisting on EU-
standard fuels with 2% sulphur, we can greatly reduce
environmental impacts.
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Biological offsets in Nimba: making
all these interests co-exist sustainably
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The ArcelorMittal Biodiversity
Conservation Programme (BCP)
Vision
Establishment of a Nimba Mountains Planning Area, which:
• allows multiple land uses to co-exist in appropriate designated zones; and
• promotes development based on the maintenance of a biodiverse, healthy
environment.
Approach
• Focus on the terrestrial biological environment (soils, plants and animals)
• Technical or socio-economic measures according to the needs of
stakeholders
• Achieve sustainable forest management and conservation through working
with local communities, government, NGOs and other key stakeholders
• Helping communities find ways to benefit from conservation and develop
sustainable livelihoods within the forest resources; and supporting protected
area management
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BCP – Two key Focus Area
Assisting Forest Conservation
• Help the communities and the Government of Liberia’s Forestry
Development Authority to agree, gazette and implement rational and
sustainable areas of conservation and utilisation across all forest areas
in northern Nimba.
• Ensure better quality, more biodiverse forest in the long term, and
sustainable production areas.
Starting Agricultural Intensification
• Promote stabilisation of farming through greater use of tree crops in
agroforestry systems.
• Long term improvements in livelihoods that reduce people’s
dependence on forest resources, through tree crop and livestock
production, better marketing etc.
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BCP Activities 2011-13: MoUs
with community forest groups
• Public awareness about CFMB/JCFMB-AML MoUs
• MoUs signed with Gba, Zor and Blei
CFMB and support provided
• MoU in negotiation with East Nimba CMC
• GPS training for CFGs
• Data collection protocol developed
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Conservation agriculture
• Conducted by three Liberian NGOs
• Aimed at farmers with limited land
resources
• 6 participating communities
Benefits of conservation agriculture
• Moves towards stabilised agriculture
• Includes both tree and annual food
crops
• Reduces labour requirements
• Improves nutrient cycling through soil
horizons
• Farm families can spend time in other
ways such as on-farm processing
• Reduces shifting cultivation
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Further environmental work
• Upgrade environmental compliance systems and audits.
• Continue Biodiversity Conservation Programme and consolidate
design of Phase 2 Offset Programme.
• Design improvements on soil management, borrow and TMF.
• Further develop Mine Closure Plan.
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Making biodiversity and ecosystems
services an Operations imperative
For full text, see ArcelorMittal.com
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Closure and rehabilitation
• Mine and infrastructure closure plan is being developed.
• Much of the infrastructure (towns, railway, port, power plants
etc.) are expected to be handed over to government in working
condition.
• Borrow areas will be rehabilitated during the life of mine by
replacing topsoil and restoration through community contracts.
• Mines will be restored as far as possible by replacement of
topsoil and revegetation through community contracts.
• Tailings dam and waste dumps will also be restored by
replacing topsoil and revegetation through community contracts.
• Sediment ponds may be developed into fishery resources.
• More consultation, design and costing are required.
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Land rehabilitation by Forkpayea Gbelee:
Neekreen, Grand Bassa, July 2009
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Land rehabilitation by Alvin Poure:
Tokadeh, Nimba, October 2010
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Land rehabilitation by James Davis:
Tokadeh, Nimba, April 2013
Local grass, 8 months after planting