Biodiversity and Environmental Education in South Carolina, USA

BP’s Cooper River plant in South Carolina has a large area of land under its stewardship, much of it rich in biodiversity. BP’s concern about biodiversity issues is magnified by the location of the plant, bordering the Francis Marion National Forest. Forestry management, wildlife management, community outreach, and environmental education are all of great importance in attempting to fulfill BP’s mission statement of “no harm to the environment.”

The Cooper River site encompasses 6,000 acres, 4,000 of which are upland forest habitat, and the remaining 2,000 acres marsh and wetlands. The plant itself, inside a fenced area, only occupies around 450 acres, leaving over 5,500 acres undeveloped. After Hurricane Hugo destroyed much of the forest in 1989, BP increased its efforts to restore and enhance the site’s forest and wildlife resources.

In 1994, the BP Cooper River plant became a certified wildlife site with the Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) in Silver Spring, Maryland. That same year BP won WHC’s first “Habitat of the Year” award. In 1999 the plant became certified in WHC’s Corporate Lands for Learning (CLL) Programme, which involves environmental education and community outreach. Since 1999, the CLL programme at Cooper River has had more than 2,300 participants on-site, and more than 8,200 participants off-site.