Managing Biodiversity

Protecting plant and animal species and ecosystems wherever we operate is an essential component of our health, safety and environmental commitment. We integrate biodiversity conservation principles and legislation into our business management systems, considering all stages of the asset life cycle. Biodiversity issues do not stop at the edges of our leases, so our biodiversity conservation includes collaboration with stakeholders including multiple industries, communities, First Nations, governments and regulators. A regional planning approach is effective for identifying and applying land-use thresholds, particularly for the management of potential habitat impacts to species at risk including woodland caribou, burrowing owl and grizzly bear.

Benefiting from Global Experience

ConocoPhillips is a global company that supports a public biodiversity position and has extensive experience managing sustainable development issues. ConocoPhillips Canada benefits from this experience and expertise through our role as one of four core members of ConocoPhillips’ Biodiversity and Ecosystems Network of Excellence. This knowledge-sharing group shares best practices and lessons learned from across our global operations. For example, discussions between our Canada and Alaska business units resulted in a unique technology to track and record grizzly bears in Alberta and financial support of a caribou test project in ConocoPhillips Alaska operations. Caribou were fitted with collars that included an additional digital camera unit, allowing researchers to better understand how caribou may respond to above-ground pipelines or other features. This was the first time that this new data collection system was used on a species other than the grizzly bear.

Woodland Caribou

In our Western Canada Gas business, managing our activities in caribou habitat represents a significant sustainability challenge. A variety of factors, including industrial development, forest harvesting and increasing predator and prey populations has led to habitat changes and a resulting increase in predation risk. These changes have contributed to the decline of caribou, now a threatened species in Canada. We strive to minimize the impact of our operations on woodland caribou at all stages of our operations.

• We adapt our development plans, where practical, to minimize our footprint. In the Kaybob area of Alberta, we identified sensitive areas and minimized any new land footprints in the habitat of the Little Smoky caribou herd. For example, we placed new linear features like right-of-ways parallel to existing linear features, to help reduce overall footprint development.
• We complete Caribou Protection Plans in caribou zones, which help identify and minimize potential impacts on the ground.
• We work with other industrial operators, including forestry companies, to coordinate and therefore reduce overall access development in sensitive caribou areas.

Collaborating to Minimize Impacts

Managing the cumulative impact of expanding populations, infrastructure and industry requires the attention and ongoing collaboration of government, industry, special interest groups and Aboriginal peoples. We have been working to implement Alberta’s Caribou Recovery Plan through collaborations including the Alberta Caribou Committee. The Committee brings together government, industrial, special interest and academic partners to find a balance between industrial development and caribou conservation in northern Alberta. We are one of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers’ representatives on the Committee’s governance board. The Committee developed a West Central Caribou Landscape Management Plan and Athabasca Caribou Landscape Management Plan. These plans recommend actions for supporting the recovery of caribou populations including predator control, habitat restoration and habitat protection options. These plans are under review by the Alberta government.

Supporting Caribou Research

To better understand measures that would support a balance between development and conservation, we have been a long-term supporter of caribou research.

• In 2008 and 2009, we supported the Alberta Caribou Committee’s Research and Monitoring Committee with a $40,000 per year grant.
• We teamed with a peer company and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers to support the Caribou Range Restoration Project for a total project expense of $140,000.
• In 2009 and 2010, we provided $20,000 per year for a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Calgary focused on research into the interaction of caribou with forestry and energy development.

Burrowing Owl

Burrowing owls are an endangered species protected by the Species at Risk Act. Predation, vehicle collisions and habitat fragmentation caused by roads, agricultural and industrial development are contributing to their decline. We are working to understand and mitigate any potential impact of our planned or existing operations on this species. For example:

• In our operations in the Cessford area of Alberta, we managed issues that arose from the proximity of burrowing owl nests to our proposed or existing developments. Surveys were performed by professional biologists to document the burrowing owl presence in the area and, where practical, development plans were adjusted to avoid sensitive times or areas.
• We brought in burrowing owl research scientists to provide information and research results to our operators and field staff, to help raise awareness of potential impacts and early avoidance and mitigation.
• We provided $16,000 per year from 2008 to 2010 to support a University of Alberta study examining the potential effects of oil and gas activity on burrowing owls in southern Alberta. Preliminary results suggest burrowing owls can use various habitat types, including disturbed features such as roads, for foraging during the evening. However, these areas may also represent mortality sources, particularly for those roads with increased or fast vehicular traffic loads.

Grizzly Bear

Our operations in the Alberta foothills are benefiting from the research of the Foothills Research Institute’s Grizzly Bear Program. The Program’s 27-person research team uses GPS collars to track bears and has collected more than 250,610 data points over the last 10 years. The data is used to create maps showing the likelihood of grizzly bear presence and the common routes bears may use when foraging or moving through the landscape.

We use the program’s research in our planning to decrease the occurrence of wildlife encounters and to minimize bear disturbance. For example, we use maps to identify grizzly bear habitats and minimize the chance of human and grizzly interaction. Over the past two years we have contributed $30,000 to the Foothill Research Institute’s programs.