Environment and natural resource management

When licences are granted to mining companies, monitoring and regular controls must be carried out on-site to reduce the adverse effects of mining activities that are behind numerous environmental, social and economic impacts. The structural capacity constraints of the Togolese mining administration, and often the lack of resources, continue to hinder the regular control and more efficient supervision of mining operations. The lack of regular control most often results in mining activities’ non-compliance with the regulations, which in turn do not always take account of the reality on the ground. This has multiple social and environmental implications and leads to a loss of income for the State in terms of fees and other taxes.
To tackle this problem, regular visits need to be made to the different mines and quarries.
The objective of this technical assistance is therefore to support the DGMG carrying out mining control operations and environmental inspections on a quarterly basis.

This assignment aims to develop agroforestry systems (AFS) for farmers. The idea is to support them in developing agronomic solutions linked with forestry production to make their crop cultivation more sustainable. The target is to reach 1500 ha to be planted by 1500 growers with different tree species (fruit trees, trees for charcoal production, etc.) to improve the sustainability of their cropping strategy. A voucher system will be put in place to help the farmers to finance the seedlings, prepare the soil, etc.

Since 2005, the government of Togo has been aiming to implement a diversification policy in the mining sector, a major focus of economic development in the country. Over the last two decades, Togo's mining industry has mainly concentrated on unconsolidated phosphate for the production of fertilizer and phosphoric acid; SNPT is the key actor in this.
This study had three components:
- A sectorial environmental and social assessment aiming to integrate analytical and participatory approaches into strategic decisions, and to include environmental and social considerations in sectorial policies, plans and programmes.
- An in-depth examination of the environmental and social audit of the SNPT to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the SNPT-funded audit, and propose recommendations to bring it into compliance with best international practices and relevant World Bank requirements.
- At the request of SNPT, a capacity building programme for SNPT employees and those of other mining companies was developed and implemented.