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