THE CONSERVATION CHALLENGE: OIL AND WILDLIFE IN THE ALBERTINE.

PAPER PRESENTED TO EDITORS ON UGANDAS OIL AND GAS SECTOR TUESDAY OCTOBER 29, 2013 AT SOYA BUNGA. AGGREY RWETSIBA SENIOR MONITORING & RESEARCH COORDINATOR, UGANDA WILDLIFE AUTHORITY Email: aggrey.rwetsiba@ugandawildlife.org Tel: 0414 355000

Outline of presentation
Brief about UWA Brief on oil exploration Vs PAs Impacts of oil on the PAs Challenges of managing the impacts What is UWA doing to minimize impacts Conclusion

Uganda Wildlife Authority

UWA is an institution mandated to manage wildlife in Uganda within and outside PAs Established in 1996 as merger of Uganda National Parks and Game Dept. It is in charge of 10 National Parks and 12 Wildlife Reserves, and provides guidance for the management of 5 Community Wildlife Areas and 13 Wildlife Sanctuaries. PAs cover approx. 11% of Ugandas land area

Brief on exploration
Uganda started exploring for oil way back in 1926 Extensive exploration work started in 2001 with the first discovery made in 2006 Since then more discoveries have been made with the total estimates of 3 billion barrels In 2008, the National Oil & Gas Policy was formulated The country is now at the stage of developing the oil fields - field developments, refinery, pipelines

Overlap of oil blocks with high biodiversity areas (national parks, wildlife reserves, forest reserves etc) over 70% of protected areas lie within the Albertine Graben About 50% of wells so far drilled are within protected areas

Some indications of current status re. petroleum exploration and exploitation.

EA5 RHINO CAMP BASIN Size 6,040sq.km Licensed to Neptune Petroleum (U) Ltd ( Now Tower Resources) on 27th Sept 2005

Exploration areas showing the Some areas in status ofconservation licensing Albertine Graben
Lomunga Community Wildlife area

EA5: Was licenced to Neptune. 3 Wells were drilled , but were all dry.

3N

EA1 PAKWACH BASIN Size 4,285 sq.km Licensed to Heritage Oil and Gas Ltd and Energy Africa (now Tullow Oil) 0n 1st July 2004

East Madi Wildlife Reserve

Ajai Wildlife Reserve Karuma Wildlife Reserve

Murchison FNP: Licenced to TOTAL over 30 wells drilled in prime tourism area., described as world class oil province Kabwoya WR: Licensed to Tullow. over 8 wells drilled. Kingfisher area: 3 wells More will be drilled for drilled. Field ready for production Semuliki . Licensed to CNOOC production Seismics and test drilling done some sites. Findings not interesting enough.

EA2 LAKE ALBERT BASIN Size 4,675 sq.km Licensed to Hardman Resources Ltd and Enegy Africa Ltd (now Tullow Oil) on 8th October 2001.

Bugungu Wildlife Reserve

Murchison Falls National Park Ramsar site (2006): Murchison Murchison Kaiso-Tonya Falls Community NP: Ugandas WA Falls - Albert Delta largest protected area.Wetland UniversKabwoya Wildlife Reserve (EPS) System ally recognised as one of East Africa Africas best parks in 60s. Kabwoya Toro / Semuliki WR: New Wildlife protected Reserve Impressive growth in wildlife last area in Uganda (2002) with rapid 10-15 years after lawlessness Semuliki National Park in growth in wildlife and 70s and 80s. Tourism growing. reintroductions of locally extinct Rwenzori Mountains National Park species. Area famous in 60s for large migrations between Kibale National Park Murchison and Semuliki. Queen Elisabeth National Park Queen UN Kyambura Biosphere Elisabeth Wildlife Reserve NP: Ugandas Reserve (1979): most popular Queen and Elisabeth accessible Kigezi Wildlife Reserve park. Wildlife and tourism growing (ref. Murchison). Also numerous Forest Reserves

EA3A SEMLIKI BASIN Size 1,991sq.km First licensed to Heritage Oil and Gas Ltd as part of EA3 on 15th January 1997 Re-licensed to Heritage Oil and Gas Ltd and Energy Africa (now Tullow Oil) on 8th Sept 2004.
1N

EA3B SEMLIKI BASIN Size 1,786 sq.km Includes Turaco Prospect Area Not licensed

EA4A LAKES EDWARD-GEORGE BASIN Size 3,812sq.km Not Licensed

Queen Elisabeth NP & Kigezi WR: Was licenced to Dominion. one well drilled and was dry.

EA4B LAKES EDWARD-GEORGE BASIN Size 2,021sq.km Licensed to Dominion Petroleum Ltd on 27th July 2007

IMPACTS OF OIL ACTIVITIES

Impacts on biodiversity
Movement of large numbers of exploration crews and heavy logistical equipment
opens up virgin areas as well as destroys the habitat result in non-target killing of wildlife, disruption, disturbance and scare of wildlife, blockage and interference with animal migration routes and patterns interfere with animal breeding patterns like kob lekking grounds Some animals are very sensitive to earth vibrations e.g Elephants

Giraffe close to a drill site

Seismic surveys laying of Geo-phones along cut lines

Increased traffic

Noise and vibrations

Waste management drill cuttings

Generation of sewage, waste water and garbage and their associated pressures on the environment

Drill waste Consolidation pits

Waste management

Road kills

Excess land take during road construction

Bear area in the wild

Impacts of oil activities on tourism

Visual intrusion and negative impact of infrastructure on tourism e.g In MFNP one of the most popular circuits had to be closed to tourists for about 3 months during the initial drilling Negative publicity reduced number of visitors and therefore reduced revenue in the long term Oil drilling sites are areas of intensive human presence (bee-hive like) with up to 100 people during operations

 Chemicals used during drilling could find their way into surface and ground which may cause death of animals

Un restored well site with porous fence at Karuka 2 in Bugungu WR

Dead lioness at Jobi East 2

Challenges of managing the impacts

Co-existence of tourism and oil activities
Tourism is the main source of income for wildlife management Anything that interferes with tourism therefore interferes with wildlife management So far Tourist arrivals in the parks has been increasing steadily Tourists are interested in pristine nature of the PAs The challenge is for UWA to ensure that these activities are done with minimal impacts to tourism

Challenges (2)
Impacts that cannot be mitigated
Habitat destruction Interference with animal behavior Interference with breeding patterns

The challenge has been to have oil companies offset these impacts

Challenges (2)
Inadequate capacity
Institutional capacity
Government concentrated training on energy sector specifically Petroleum Exploration & Production Department and environmental sector left behind Experts in environmental assessment still lacking staff have limited training in oil related activities yet are expected to monitor the activity in regulatory agencies Staff numbers- high demand on the staff to monitor Equipments to monitor oil activities

UWA Staff attempting to put off fire manually near an oil well head

Pipes burnt in QENP

Challenges (3)
Limited financial resources (activities imposed on us because of oil exploration)
monitoring compliance, Additional ecosystem monitoring, re-planning and re-zoning the park New infrastructure e.g. new tourism trails, accommodation facilities as alternatives

WHAT IS UWA DOING

Compliance monitoring
Review all EIAs of oil developments in the PAs and ensure activities have minimal impacts on the PAs Carry out compliance monitoring on a daily basis. The headquarter staff give backstopping to field staff on a quarterly basis Have designated dedicated staff to undertake compliance monitoring
Recruited 100 rangers to work with oil companies Have a warden based in the field in charge of oil monitoring

Capacity building
Undertaking building of capacity through staff training and study visits
Over 50 rangers and wardens trained on basic facts regarding oil impacts Planning another round of similar training Senior staff of the organization have under taken study tours to outside countries e.g Canada and Gabon to get experience

Capacity building for UWA staff

 Planning to establish and fully equip Field monitoring Units for Petroleum activities in Murchison NP, Toro Semliki WR and Queen Elizabeth National Park
Recruiting staff Building accommodation and office Basic lab and lab equipment Other equipment vehicles, computers, cameras, GPS, PPE Create a unit at headquarter in charge of oil and gas

Developing monitoring tools

Developed operational guidelines for oil companies operating in PAs (draft)
To minimize long and short - term negative impacts of oil and gas developments on the integrity of protected areas and associated ecological processes.

Developed an MoU between UWA and TOTAL for operations in MFNP Developing a sensitivity atlas for MFNP Reviewing the GMPs of some key PAs to take into account oil impacts - Looking at alternatives for tourism where applicable (new tourism trails and circuits)

Research
Working with WCS to carry out research on impacts of oil on animal movement e.g collaring of animals, Working with oil companies in carrying out biodiversity surveys e.g ground surveys of birds, mammals, and fish Working with oil companies in generating information on avoidance features Worked with WWF to carry out a survey on impact of oil on tourism Working with companies in sensitizing and updating the tourism stakeholders on oil activities in the parks

National level
Working with the environment technical monitoring committee (NEMA, Water, NFA, PEPD, Fisheries, Wetlands) to ensure compliance Participated in preparing the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Participated in developing the Sensitivity atlas for the Albertine Graben Albertine Graben Monitoring Plan

 Provide information on park rules to oil workers Advocating for use of appropriate technologies to reduce impacts (directional drilling, smaller rigs) No waste in the park No flaring in the park All infrastructure should be out of the park including workers camps Minimise number of workers on the drill site

Other interventions

Conclusions
Having successfully explored, Government is now entering into the development phase. This phase is inevitably going to increase the negative impacts on the protected areas and possibly tourism. If the country has to benefit from both resources, the two have to sustainably coexist. UWAs duty therefore is working closely with all partners to ensure this co-existence more so given the fact that oil is a finite resource.

Concluding Remarks
I thank the organizers, the Directors of Africa Centre for Media Excellence for according UWA an opportunity to interact and share with senior editors from the media who are the gate keepers who determine what the public consumes in the media. I appreciate the media organizations for the growing interest in conservation and eco-tourism issues by allocating dedicate pages and air space in the various outlets thereby creating more interest from other stake holders and consumers of our products.

Concluding Remarks
I commend the media for helping UWA to promote new innovations like technologies including the new payment system using the Wildlife cards to access our parks I applaud the editors for always readily availing reporters to cover our functions and events even on short notice.

Concluding Remarks
As the channels of mass communication upon which the society looks for informative and educative information which most people take as divine truth, I urge you as key partners and stake holders to work to promote the cause of conservation and the importance tourism plays as an engine of economic growth. UWA is always ready to provide timely and accurate information in regard to Wildlife conservation and tourism matters particularly to the media personnel as well as sharing with you our success stories.

Concluding Remarks
Do not hesitate to cross check with us any information from the social media or other sources since we run an open door policy at UWA. Together we conserve for Generations

Thank you very much for your kind attention