development

Let them keep their millions: should ‘development’ be refused in Madagascar?

Rio Tinto has invested 1.2 billion USD to implement a mineral sands project in  southeastern Madagascar, in what is both a global biodiversity hotspot and one of Madagascar’s poorest and more isolated regions. The first shipment of ilmenite left the new port of Fort Dauphin yesterday, yet local residents are still divided over whether the mine has been a good thing. “Let them keep their millions and allow us to fish in peace,” said one local fisherman recently to an AFP reporter. People living in Fort Dauphin and in villages nearest the mine complain of inflation, loss of hunting grounds and grazing land and the destruction of communal forest and sacred sites.

The project operates through a created entity known as Qit Minerals Madagascar S.A. (QMM) in which the Malagasy government has a 20% share. 750,000 tons of ilmenite and zircon will be extracted yearly over 60 years, in what has now officially become the world’s largest ilmenite mine. It has garnered an enormous amount of support from international organisations anxious to demonstrate the value of public-private partnerships. The World Bank has provided funds for infrastructures, including the new deep sea port. USAID supports many of the activities designed to mitigate the social impacts of the mine. Global conservation NGOs, including Conservation International, Wildlife Conservation Society, and Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) have been technical advisors and implementers of the biodiversity conservation activities, which are intended to create a “net positive” benefit from the mine.

But net positive benefit for whom? The Anosy region, where the mine is located, includes some of the nation’s most underdeveloped and food insecure villages. 80% of the Anosy population are illiterate, have no access to clean water and live in chronic poverty. Community resistance to the project has been manifested to varying degrees, from “illegal” use of resources within the new conservation areas to the setting up strategic road blocks. Local rental car owners demonstrated last week in protest of the recent cancelling of contracts by QMM in favour of cheaper car rental franchises based in the country’s capital. National media report that despite the company’s “trickle-down” rhetoric, little of the 100 million USD invested by QMM and its subcontractors in locally supplied goods last year has been invested back into the region. The construction phase is now over, meaning there will be few jobs, particularly for the unskilled which make up the vast majority of the local workforce.

Of course there are many issues at stake, not least of which are the global financial crisis and Madagascar’s ongoing political debacle. The government that negotiated the deal has since fallen, in large part due to the perception that it was selling the tanindrazana, land of the Malagasy ancestors, to foreigners. True to its promise, the new government has begun the process of renegotiating its contracts with Rio Tinto and other global companies, seeking a better distribution of mining benefits. Few people though are talking about the risks. Local populations were promised jobs, an improved natural environment, and greater access to health and education; with little mention of potentially negative impacts. Set against the present backdrop of a worsening economy and simmering local and national conflict, it appears the risks are being unduly carried by those who were, and remain, the most in need of the mine’s purported benefits.

Further links

Visit here for the latest on mining in Madagascar.
Rio Tinto’s Madagascar website.

© 2009 People and Development.