Fauna & Flora International (FFI) works with a number of strategic partners in the extractive industry. These include, amongst others, Rio Tinto, Anglo American, BP, eni and Repsol. Together we are integrating ecosystem approaches into strategic management of biodiversity and ecosystem services across their operations. Repsol, an oil and gas company, and FFI are working together to identify priority ecosystem services at Repsol's Sagari Project. Priority ecosystem services are defined by Performance Standard 6 (the guidelines produced by the International Finance Corporation) as those that a project's activities are likely to affect, and could therefore have effects on local communities, and that a project directly depends on (e.g. water). Sagari is a gas pipeline project in the western Peruvian Amazon, located along the lower Urubamba River and within the buffer zone of the Machiguenga and Ashaninka Communal reserves as well as Otishi National Park.
FFI's interest in an ecosystem approach is driven by the need to expand risk management practices and corporate commitment to understand risks at earlier stages in project life-cycles, and, by changes in legislation, promote the valuation of ecosystem services (e.g. in Peru the Ley de Mecanismos de Retribución por Servicios Ecosistémicos; www.minam.gob.pe/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/ley_302105_MRSE.pdf). Repsol and other partners are being supported by FFI to achieve best practice through voluntary compliance with IPIECA guidelines (IPIECA is the global oil and gas industry association for environmental and social issues), following Performance Standard 6 and the adoption of an ecosystem approach in projects.
An ecosystem approach (as defined by the Convention on Biological Diversity) encourages project proponents to look at the underlying ecological structure and function that determine habitat types and biodiversity, and at the ecosystem services that stakeholders depend on within an area. Focusing on ecosystem services provides a way to integrate and connect related social and environmental indicators, and helps in the development of impact assessments, mitigation, and social and environmental projects. Through a high-level assessment of operational impacts and infrastructure development, FFI evaluates ecosystem services that both the company's operations and communities depend upon and may affect. The company's social and biodiversity baselines are reviewed, experiences of the social and environmental teams captured within an ecosystem services review workshop, and a joint site visit undertaken.
In the Sagari Project several unique activities undertaken within the social and environmental teams were applicable to the identification and understanding of ecosystem services within the study area (e.g. monitoring related to water quality, size of fish catches and hunting frequency) but lacked any focus on understanding ecosystem services. Recommendations for integrating the ecosystem approach at both the company and operational level were provided by FFI, including designing data collection to define the location and flow of ecosystem services and the level of dependence on ecosystem services by the project and local communities. A key strength of this project was a multi-disciplinary approach that included participation of the Project Construction, Safety and Environment, and Community Relations teams. This resulted in a better understanding of ecosystem services across the project area and of the potential impacts the gas pipeline project will have on biodiversity and ecosystem services.
FFI engages with all its corporate partners to adopt and incorporate an ecosystem approach to identifying and managing impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services. This current collaboration has demonstrated how the successful integration of an ecosystem approach can foster multi-disciplinary collaboration to promote the efficient and comprehensive identification of ecosystem services, stakeholder dependencies, potential impacts and mitigation activities.
