Integrating Biodiversity Conservation into Oil and Gas Development

By The Energy and Biodiversity Institute

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Increasingly, areas of interest for oil and gas development are also being recognized and valued for their biodiversity resources. Biodiversity, the complex web of genes, species, ecosystems and ecological processes that sustain life on Earth, provides human society with food, medicines, natural resources, ecological services and spiritual and aesthetic benefits. Yet, this biodiversity is under greater threat than ever before from human activities. While oil and gas operations are often not the biggest threat to biodiversity in an area, they can have a wide range of negative impacts on ecosystems. In some cases, company activities may also make a positive contribution to biodiversity conservation. With increasing demand for energy and the likelihood that oil and gas will be used to meet much of this demand over the next several decades, the risk to biodiversity from energy development projects is expected to increase.