Toliara Sands Project

The company Base Resources Limited has recently taken over the Toliara sands Project which has been in the planning stages for some 20 years. As a result, there are a range of past processes and previous commitments made to stakeholders that need to be considered.

When a development requires land acquisition either owned or occupied by communities, this directly impacts and affects the livelihoods of these communities. A Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) is required to cover the main project components and includes both physically and economically displaced households. The overriding objective of this project is to inform the RAP through the inclusion of a Livelihood Restoration Plan that brings it in line with IFC Performance Standard 5 – Land Acquisition and Involuntary Resettlement.

Work undertaken on this project includes:

• Assessment of the existing land-use and agricultural livelihood potential of the area
• Development of a compensation framework for Project Affected People (PAPs)
• Computation of an independent set of compensation values to those proposed by the government process
• Development of an eligibility and entitlement framework based on potential impacts

• Compilation of a livelihood restoration and development plan to offset or preferably improve the livelihoods of PAPs that will guide the project’s future social commitments. The LRP aims to understand the development context in sufficient detail to outline livelihood restoration opportunities for the PAPs and their families. These opportunities are fully informed by the fact that the project area is hot and arid and of relatively poor agricultural potential, with the natural resource base degraded through overstocking of livestock and other practices

• Setting up a simple nursery for skills training and to provide plant material for rehabilitation of the mine site and the surrounding areas
• Setting up a long term environmental monitoring program using satellite imagery of the area to observe and quantify positive and negative environmental change due to project and other activities