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Nord Gold SE is financially and operationally supporting the development of a community forest in the province of Oubritenga in Burkina Faso.
The Russian gold producer has 10 operating mines in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Russia and Kazakhstan and several development and exploration projects in West Africa, Eurasia and the Americas.
The Oubritenga community forest project will have a range of social and environmental benefits, Nordgold said, including helping to improve household living standards in five villages and helping save rare plant species and promoting the natural regeneration of local species.
The Oubritenga community forest project could help save rare plant species and promote the natural regeneration of local species
The community had previously expressed a need for a nutritious forest during the validation process of the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment study, on the development of the Samtenga deposit. The deposit will become the source of gold ore for the Bissa’s processing plant.
In order to create the forest, with fruit trees being planted over a 3-hectare area, the Bissa mine has provided the Provincial Directorate for the Environment of Oubritenga with the necessary equipment, $50,000, which includes fencing, wheelbarrows, pickaxes and gardening tools.
“Everything we have proposed and asked for has been listened to and delivered,” said Salfo Ouédraogo, Director of the Environment of the province of Oubritenga at the reception ceremony.
For the implementation of this community project, land agreement protocols were signed with the partners in the presence of the grassroots communities (municipal councilors, Village Development Councils and producers organisations), village resource persons and local administration, to enable efficient and sustainable management of the site.
The project management committee will be set up and trained by Nordgold’s environmental technical services team, to further support the preservation, safeguarding and, one day, the marketing of the products that the forest will produce.
