Azura-Edo Independent Power Plant Environmental Impact ... - IFC

7.9.2 Impact Description and Significance: Summary
A summary of the impacts of physical resettlement is provided in Table 7.19
below.
Table 7.21
Summary of Impact Significance Pre-mitigation
Phase Impact Significance (pre-mitigation)
Pre-construction
Loss of physical and cultural assets, land,
including productive agricultural land
Major Negative
7.10 ECONOMIC RESETTLEMENT
7.10.1 Impact Description and Significance: Pre-construction
Impact Description
Economic resettlement is defined as the loss of assets, or access to assets, that
result in a loss of income or means of livelihood. Economic resettlement is
expected to result in the following key impacts:
• Loss of on-going income;
• Loss of initial investment (time and resources) for establishing crops;
• Inability to repay loans;
• Reduced income and economic activity within the communities;
• Increased food insecurity; and
• Tensions between stakeholders and the project developers.
This type of resettlement therefore can have a greater impact than physical
resettlement. In the Project area, in addition to the approximately 642 houses
(although approximately 600 of these are uncompleted buildings) that will be
acquired by the Project, roughly 60 households will lose farmland. A further
unknown number will lose access to forest products that are also important
for local livelihoods.
The communities in the Project area are primarily dependent on land
cultivation for income and livelihood, supplemented by fishing, livestock
farming and forestry. The majority of people living in this area hold small or
medium sized land plots (2 - 7 acres); very few households (roughly ten
percent) in the area can be classified as ‘large’ landowners, with over ten acres
of land.
Cultivation of land, particularly plantations or trees, requires significant
investment of time and resources before income can be generated through
harvests. As many people are unable to obtain loans from banks or other
agencies, people often rely on friends and family, or loan and credit
associations, for investment.
AZURA EDO IPP
7-54
DRAFT EIA REPORT