Oil and gas development in the World Heritage and wider protected area network in sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

More than 25% of natural World Heritage (WH) sites worldwide are estimated to be under pressure from existing or future mining and energy activities (IUCN 2008; UNESCO 2009). However, that 'pressure' has yet to be quantitatively defined and assessed for many regions of the world. We conducted a GIS-based analysis of overlap and proximity between natural WH sites and areas allocated to oil and gas concessions as well as pipelines and oil wells for all of sub-Saharan Africa. We found that oil and gas concessions were located within 27% of the WH sites, though no currently active oil wells were operating directly within the WH sites. A proximity-based assessment of oil and gas concessions within 5 km of WH site boundaries included only one additional WH site, suggesting that sites susceptible to indirect impacts from oil and gas development are likely to be those already overlapped by concessions. Our findings indicate that activity from oil and gas development in sub-Saharan WH sites has to date been limited; however, future pressure cannot be ruled out, due to continued presence of concessions within more than one quarter of the network, and projected expansion of oil and gas exploration within the region. Our results may be used to inform the inclusion of new sites into the WH network.

Antipoaching standards in onshore hydrocarbon concessions drawn from a Central African case study

“…In our study site as in other places (Osti et al 2011), poaching seems to be associated with urbanization and land conversion for agriculture. It is thus crucial that hydrocarbon companies engage in discussion with the surrounding municipalities and farmers to control urban and agriculture expansion inside their concession (Abernethy et al 2013).…”

Oil in the Sahara: mapping anthropogenic threats to Saharan biodiversity from space

“…The methodology employed herein is only one of the many options available to practitioners for the mapping and monitoring of oil exploration and oil exploitation activities in desert ecosystems. Other possible methods include the use of purely geographic information systems-based analyses, as employed by Osti et al [34]. However, this form of analysis relies heavily on global energy and environment data providers and consultancies, such as the information handling services, which is not free of charge and may potentially be less objective than the use of open access satellite imagery.…”

Editorial: To go, or not to go? What are business attitudes to the philosophy of no-go policies and protected areas?

“…There has never been a survey of the number of companies operating in protected areas so it is impossible to say how common this is, although the trend seems to be for an increase. A study in Africa found 27 per cent of natural World Heritage sites had oil and gas concessions inside their borders although none were currently operational (Osti et al, 2011); an expected boom in African mining (Edwards et al, 2014) could rapidly change this. Together protected areas and indigenous territories put 49.9 per cent of the Amazon's total habitat under protection (Maretti et al, 2014).…”