Integrating Biodiversity Conservation into Oil and Gas ... - EBI

Forest in Bangladesh, which had been included in the
company’s concession license, and the redrawing of the
boundaries of Shell’s Camisea concession license in Peru
to exclude Manu National Park.
5.1.2 Conservation priority areas
Just as important in terms of biodiversity conservation
are areas that are not yet officially designated for
protection, but have been identified as having a high
biodiversity value, by governments, international
convention bodies, conservation organizations or the
scientific community (see Box 4). Such conservation
priority areas are sometimes very large, for example an
entire country or region of the world. The challenges
here are to understand the criteria used in making
the designation, confirm local biodiversity values and
determine which specific parts of those areas are the
highest priorities for conservation, by desk studies
and communications with governments, conservation
organizations or scientists. It is also important to
examine the social and economic aspects of biodiversity
(for example, the value of a certain species or area as a
local source of food or income).
5.1.3 Confirming biodiversity values and
determining appropriate responses
If a region of interest has neither been legally designated
for protection nor identified as having high biodiversity
values by another party, it is still important to be aware
of the value of biodiversity in the area. In all new
BOX 15. RE-ROUTING PIPELINES TO CONSERVE BIODIVERSITY
Oil and gas pipelines can stretch for thousands of miles across several different ecosystem types and have the potential
to cause damage to biodiversity either through the primary impacts of their construction and use or through the
secondary impacts caused by people using the pipeline right-of-way to gain access to previously inaccessible ecosystems.
Recognizing this risk, several companies altered the planned routes of new pipelines to avoid areas of high biodiversity
value.
In building the West to East pipeline in China, Shell worked with Petrochina and the Wild Camel Foundation to re-route the
pipeline path from the core of the Lop Nur wild camel reserve to the reserve’s buffer zone. Although Shell is not yet part
of the project, it has been working with its potential joint-venture partners to raise issues of biodiversity management and
other HSE concerns.
Statoil has modified several pipeline routes off the coast of Norway, to protect the reef-building cold-water corals (Lophelia
pertusa) that are found there. Statoil found the first cold-water coral reef in 1982 and has since cooperated with the
Norwegian Institute of Marine Research (IMR) to identify several more reefs and collect biodiversity data. As a result of
this work, an inshore coral reef in the Trondheim fjord was preliminarily protected as the first Norwegian marine nature
reserve in 2000. When planning the underwater Haltenpipe gas pipeline off the coast of Norway, Statoil found a number
of reefs along the intended pipeline corridor. The company surveyed the area in cooperation with IMR and modified the
pipeline route to avoid the Trondheim fjord reserve and other reefs.
BP is managing the development and operation of the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, which will export crude oil from
the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean, through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. An intensive investigation was carried
out to refine the exact course the pipeline should take. Different constraints were weighed, including environmental and
social issues, the nature of the terrain, safety (both during and after construction), technical feasibility, cost, schedule and
ultimate operability. Although the pipeline route passes through a region internationally renowned for its biodiversity,
great care has been taken to ensure that the pipeline construction route has minimized effects on ecologically sensitive
areas. The primary mechanism for this has been re-routing. For example, in Azerbaijan, the route was designed to
avoid two protected areas: the Shamkir State Forbidden Area and the Korchay Forbidden Area. In Georgia, the route
was amended to avoid primary forest at Tetritskaro in the east and Tori in the west and the Narianis Veli and Ktsia valley
wetlands. In Turkey, re-routing was done to avoid wetlands and the habitat of the endangered Great Snipe bird.
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Integrating Biodiversity Conservation into Oil and Gas Development