Shell Gabon and the Shell Foundation are working with the Smithsonian Institution to increase scientific understanding of biodiversity, the impact of energy development in Gabon. The results of the research are publicly available and being used to raise awareness and develop conservation strategies.
Oil companies have been working in Gabon’s Gamba Complex for more than 40 years. The Complex covers 11,000 km2, an area the size of Jamaica, and includes extensive lagoons, lakes, open savannah, and dense rainforests. This creates an area very rich in biologically diversity; however, very little was known about the different species in the area, how the area’s ecological systems worked or what the impact was of energy projects.
Thanks to a grant from the Shell Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution’s Monitoring and Assessment of Biodiversity Programme (SI/MAB) conducted a long-term independent biodiversity assessment of the area. The study discovered that the biodiversity in the areas where we are producing oil is the same or in some cases higher for certain organisms than in the surrounding national parks.
Shell Gabon is now funding the development of a biodiversity action plan covering direct and indirect operational impacts and natural resource management issues. As a result of our work with SI/MAB, Shell Gabon has also produced nine sets of guidelines to help our staff reduce the impact of our operations on biodiversity in the region.