The Business and Biodiversity Offsets Program (BBOP) is a new partnership of
companies, government agencies, scientists and nongovernmental organizations,
supported by Forest Trends and Conservation International. Biodiversity offsets
are conservation actions intended to compensate for the residual, unavoidable
harm to biodiversity caused by major development projects, to ensure at least
no net loss of biodiversity and, where possible, net gain.
The BBOP partners wish to show, through a portfolio of pilot projects, that
biodiversity offsets can help achieve significantly, better and more
cost-effective conservation outcomes than normally occur in infrastructure
development. They also believe that demonstrating no net loss of biodiversity
can help companies secure their license to operate, and manage their costs and
liabilities.
Newmont Ghana's Akyem project is one of four BBOP pilots worldwide, and
investigations and discussion are taking place on the nature of the offset to
be implemented in this area.
Conservation International Ghana (CIG) completed an initial biodiversity
assessment of our concession area to better understand its biodiversity
status. The assessment confirmed the concession area is degraded heavily
due to years of subsistence farming through shifting cultivation.
Evaluations in the larger area of large and small mammals, amphibians and
reptiles, invertebrates and flora found no species of global concern, with the
exception of
cola boxiana - a plant species that is identified on the IUCN Red list
as an endangered species. CIG confirmed that the cola boxiana
species is not found in the footprint of the proposed Akyem mine project.
Additionally, the assessment included a community biodiversity use survey,
which classified different usages of biodiversity in the forest and recorded
communities' dependence on them, highlighting, as an example, the importance of
medicinal plants to local communities' livelihoods.
For more information on the assessment, please review CIG's report:
A Biodiversity Assessment of Newmont's Gold Mining
Site at the Agyenua Forest Reserve
