Involvement in Collaborative Land Management Work

We are working with other members of industry, government and local communities to help ensure careful, coordinated and thoughtful oil sands development. In many cases, this work has involved understanding the cumulative effects of existing and forecasted development, recommending ways to better manage these effects and implementing real mitigation actions. The list of examples below shows our interest in influencing both policy and practices for improving sustainability performance:

• Alberta Land Use Framework
• Regional Advisory Council (Lower Athabasca Regional Plan)
• Cumulative Environmental Management Association
• Sustainable Ecosystems Working Group
  • Terrestrial Ecosystems Management Framework
  • Alberta Caribou Committee
  • Athabasca Landscape Team
• Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute
• Land Stewardship Working Group of the Oil Sands Leadership Initiative
• Oil Sands Developers Group Environmental Committee

Sustainable Ecosystem Working Group

The Sustainable Ecosystems Working Group is a working group under the Cumulative Environmental Management Association. The Cumulative Environmental Management Association's members include regional Aboriginal communities, oil sands companies, Alberta and federal government agencies and environmental non-government organizations. We have been an active member of the Cumulative Environmental Management Association since its inception. We contributed to its establishment as a founding member through our predecessor Gulf Canada Resources. We co-chaired the Sustainable Ecosystems Working Group for three years ending in June 2009, completing a number of substantive reports that capture recommendations to manage cumulative land impacts of oil sands development. The most significant among these is the Terrestrial Ecosystem Management Framework and related supporting work which was completed and submitted to the Government of Alberta in mid-2008. While the framework did not have 100 percent consensus, it did have support or conditional support from all but two members of Cumulative Environmental Management Association. As the province now is working to develop the Lower Athabasca Regional Plan under the Land Use Framework, many of the Cumulative Environmental Management Association recommendations provide a solid foundation on which to build, not just from Sustainable Ecosystems Working Group work on land issues, but also from their work on air and water issues. We remain a Cumulative Environmental Management Association advocate. In the case of Sustainable Ecosystems Working Group, we believe there is a role for us to contribute to sub-regional access management planning that is likely to be required within the Lower Athabasca Regional Plan.