Project: Mining vs conservation finance impact valuation
Client: Confidential NGO
Location: Africa
Objective: Despite being recognised as a biodiversity haven and habitat for several Critically Endangered species, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS) in Africa is under increasing pressure from mining interests seeking to exploit the area's mineral deposits within what used to be a central part of the WHS. A conservation NGO requested our support to perform a high-level impact valuation assessment to evaluate the economic, environmental and social trade-offs between two scenarios: (1) a proposed mining development, and (2) a conservation scenario that would involve the mining enclave being re-gazetted back to be part of the World Heritage Site, supported by enhanced eco-tourism and conservation finance.
Our role: Sustain Value undertook an objective and independent impact valuation of the two options to inform the NGO’s position on the matter. The project involved developing a total impact value framework with a set of key environmental, social and economic impacts and ascertaining their relative value for the two scenarios. Where possible, monetary values were applied, for example to government revenues, carbon footprints, and water consumption. We also investigated the feasibility of various conservation finance mechanisms, including a biodiversity offset for a much larger similar mine nearby, biodiversity/carbon credits, debt-for-nature swaps, eco-tourism and conservation trust funds.
Outcome: The high-level impact valuation assessment highlighted that the conservation scenario could potentially lead to greater, more reliable and more sustainable value creation over the long-term. Compared to the mining option, the conservation option would likely create a sustainable economy by protecting the internationally important biodiversity and natural capital found at the site. The assessment suggested that the economic benefits of mining would potentially be balanced out by multiple potential negative environmental and social impacts, including a heightened risk of zoonotic disease outbreaks. The results are soon to be published in a report accompanied by a call for a moratorium on mining activities until a more detailed impact evaluation for the options has been conducted.