Accompaniment for Antsotso

In 2017-2018 the Trust supported accompaniment for a local community, Antsotso, in the Anosy region of southern Madagascar.

The community was facing severe hardships due to the impacts of biodiversity offsetting (BDO) advanced under the environmental commitments of Rio Tinto’s QMM ilmenite mine in Anosy. New restrictions to forest access under the company’s BDO arrangements had left the community’s traditional means of agricultural production and food security severely compromised.

In response to a local call for help, ALT UK offered to provide accompaniment for the community from a local organization Trano Aro Zo (TAZ), which is mandated to support communities in the Anosy region to understand and protect their human rights. Antsotso community invited TAZ to provide training and to attend their meetings with QMM staff and partners as they attempted to negotiate solutions with the various corporate, government, and NGO actors around the BDO arrangements.

The Trust provided a budget to TAZ to meet local travel costs to Antsotso and to support activities such as training in human rights, communications capacity building, and resolution processes. The Trust supported TAZ throughout the accompaniment process via regular exchange and lesson sharing.

Learn more about the Antsotso Accompaniment here:

http://www.andrewleestrust.org/blog/?p=530