In many developing countries, the oil & gas sector plays an important role and has the potential to generate significant economic and social development opportunities. However, if oil and gas operations are not effectively managed, they can lead to severe environmental impacts from habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation (e.g. from infrastructure development such as production plants and pipelines) or species mortality and disturbance (e.g. from seismic surveys and drilling activities, or from accidental oil spills). The development of effective management mechanisms to govern oil & gas sector-related risks in a proactive rather than reactive way is hindered in many countries by a lack of institutional capacity as well as access to relevant environmental data.

With its support to the Norwegian Environment Agency (NEA) under NORAD (Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation)’s Oil for Development programme, UNEP-WCMC builds capacities in partner countries and strengthens availability, use, and management of biodiversity data for environmental management of the oil & gas sector. Through the Oil for Development programme, Norway shares its experience from more than four decades of managing oil & gas resources. Since 2017, NEA and UNEP-WCMC have been running a successful partnership that delivers country assistance on environmental data management, analysis and use, and generates bespoke guidance materials to address identified needs. At the same time, we ensure that our products can be applicable globally to increase the potential to support other countries.

Global component

The global component of our work focuses on generating standard approaches and guidance that can support all countries involved in the Oil for Development (OfD) programme, as well as any other country for which they are relevant. The main focus to date has been on developing comprehensive guidance materials on environmental sensitivity mapping to meet a common need across OfD partner countries. Following a first global workshop in Trondheim (Norway) in June 2018 led by NEA, a technical workshop was held in Arusha (Tanzania) in September 2019. During the five-day event, we delivered hands-on training and support to countries on developing sensitivity atlases using the newly-developed MESA (Mapping Environmentally Sensitive Assets) spatial tool, and facilitated peer-to-peer exchange and action planning. Environmental and planning authorities from the following countries participated: Ghana, Kenya, Lebanon, Mozambique, Somalia, Tanzania (including Zanzibar), and Uganda.

Country-specific support

Our country-specific support has included key projects in Ghana, Lebanon, Mozambique, Myanmar, Somalia, and Uganda. Working with national environmental authorities, conservation departments and petroleum administrations, we focus on:

-Delivering bespoke training and capacity development;

-Facilitating improved environmental data access and management; and

-Developing databases, knowledge products and guidance, which include environmental sensitivity atlases, priority spatial datasets and metadata standard guidelines.