Oil and Wildlife Conservation in Uganda

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“OIL AND WILDLIFE CONSERVATION UGANDA.”

PAPER PRESENTED TO REPORTERS FROM THE

ALBERTINE REGION MONDAY APRIL 14TH, 2014

AT AMCEA –

BUNGA.

JOSSY MUHANGI

PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGER

UGANDA WILDLIFE AUTHORITY

Email: [email protected]

Tel: 0772673131

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]



Outline of presentation

• Brief about UWA

• Brief on oil exploration Vs PAs

• Impacts of oil on the PAs

• Challenges of managing the impacts

• What is UWA doing to minimizeimpacts

• Conclusion



Uganda Wildlife Authority

• UWA is an institution mandated to managewildlife in Uganda within and outside PAs

• Established in 1996 as merger of Uganda

National Parks and Game Dept.• It is in charge of 10 National Parks and 12

Wildlife Reserves, and provides guidance for

the management of 5 Community WildlifeAreas and 13 Wildlife Sanctuaries.

• PAs cover approx. 11% of Uganda’s land area



Brief on exploration• Uganda started exploring for oil way back in 1926

• Extensive exploration work started in 2001 with the

first discovery made in 2006

• Since then more discoveries have been made with

the total estimates of 3 billion barrels

• In 2008, the National Oil & Gas Policy was

formulated

• The country is now at the stage of developing the

oil fields

- field developments, refinery, pipelines



Overlap of oil blocks with high biodiversity areas

(national parks, wildlife reserves, forest

reserves etc)

• over 70% of protected areas lie within the

Albertine Graben

• About 50% of wells so far drilled are within

protected areas



Exploration areas showing thestatus of licensing

3N

1N

EA4B LAKES EDWARD-GEORGE BASIN

•Size 2,021sq.km

•Licensed to Dominion Petroleum Ltd on 27th

July 2007

EA4A LAKES EDWARD-GEORGE BASIN

•Size 3,812sq.km

•Not Licensed

EA3A SEMLIKI BASIN

•Size 1,991sq.km

•First licensed to Heritage Oil and Gas Ltd as

part of EA3 on 15th January 1997

•Re-licensed to Heritage Oil and Gas Ltd and

Energy Africa (now Tullow Oil) on 8 th Sept 2004.

EA2 LAKE ALBERT BASIN

•Size 4,675 sq.km

•Licensed to Hardman Resources Ltd and

Enegy Africa Ltd (now Tullow Oil) on 8 th

October 2001.

EA1 PAKWACH BASIN

•

Size 4,285 sq.km•Licensed to Heritage Oil and Gas Ltd and

Energy Africa (now Tullow Oil) 0n 1st July 2004

EA5 RHINO CAMP BASIN

•Size 6,040sq.km

•Licensed to Neptune Petroleum (U) Ltd ( Now

Tower Resources) on 27th Sept 2005

EA3B SEMLIKI BASIN

• Size 1,786 sq.km

•Includes Turaco Prospect Area

• Not licensed

Lomunga Community Wildlife

area

East Madi Wildlife Reserve Ajai Wildlife Reserve

Karuma Wildlife Reserve

Bugungu Wildlife Reserve

Also numerous Forest Reserves

Kaiso-Tonya Community WA

Kabwoya Wildlife Reserve (EPS)

Toro Semuliki Wildlife Reserve

Kyambura Wildlife Reserve

Kigezi Wildlife Reserve

Murchison Falls National Park

Semuliki National Park

Rwenzori Mountains National ParkKibale National Park

Queen Elisabeth National Park

Some conservation areas inAlbertine Graben

Ramsar site (2006): Murchison

Falls - Albert Delta Wetland

System

UN Biosphere Reserve (1979):

Queen Elisabeth

Murchison Falls NP: Uganda’s

largest protected area. Univers-

ally recognised as one of East

Africa / Africa’s best parks in 60s.

Impressive growth in wildlife last

10-15 years after lawlessness in

70s and 80s. Tourism growing.

Kabwoya WR: New protected

area in Uganda (2002) with rapid

growth in wildlife and

reintroductions of locally extinct

species. Area famous in 60s forlarge migrations between

Murchison and Semuliki.

Queen Elisabeth NP: Uganda’s

most popular and accessible

park. Wildlife and tourism

growing (ref. Murchison).

Some indications of current

status re. petroleum

exploration and exploitation.

EA5: Was licenced to

Neptune. 3 Wells were

drilled , but were all dry.

Murchison FNP: Licenced to

TOTAL

over 30 wells drilled in prime

tourism area., described as

world class oil province

Kabwoya WR: Licensed toTullow. over 8 wells drilled.

More will be drilled for

production

Kingfisher area: 3 wells

drilled. Field ready for

production

Semuliki . Licensed to CNOOC

Seismics and test drilling done

some sites. Findings not interest-

ing enough.

Queen Elisabeth NP &

Kigezi WR: Was licenced

to Dominion. one welldrilled and was dry.



Impacts on biodiversity

• Movement of large numbers of exploration

crews and heavy logistical equipment

– opens up virgin areas as well as destroys the habitat

– result in non-target killing of wildlife, disruption,

disturbance and scare of wildlife, blockage and

interference with animal migration routes and

patterns – interfere with animal breeding patterns like kob

lekking grounds

– Some animals are very sensitive to earth vibrations

e.g Elephants



Giraffe close to a drill site



Seismic surveys – laying of Geo-phones along cut lines



Increased traffic



Noise and vibrations



Waste management –drill cuttings

Generation of

sewage, waste

water and

garbage andtheir associated

pressures on

the environment



Drill waste Consolidation pits



Waste management



Road kills



Excess land take during road construction

Bare area in the wild



Visual intrusion and negative impact of

infrastructure on tourism e.g In MFNP

one of the most popular circuits had to

be closed to tourists for about 3 months

during the initial drilling

Negative publicity – reduced number of

visitors and therefore reduced revenue

in the long term Oil drilling sites are areas of intensive

human presence (bee-hive like) with up

to 100 people during operations

Impacts of oil activities on tourism



• Chemicals used during drilling could find their

way into surface and ground which may cause

death of animals



Un restored well site with porous

fence at Karuka 2 in Bugungu WR



Dead lioness at Jobi East 2



Challenges of managing the impacts

• Co-existence of tourism and oil activities

– Tourism is the main source of income for wildlifemanagement

– Anything that interferes with tourism thereforeinterferes with wildlife management

– So far Tourist arrivals in the parks has been increasingsteadily

– Tourists are interested in pristine nature of the PAsThe challenge is for UWA to ensure that these

activities are done with minimal impacts to tourism



Challenges (2)

• Impacts that cannot be mitigated

– Habitat destruction

– Interference with animal behavior

– Interference with breeding patterns

• The challenge has been to have oil companies

offset these impacts



Challenges (2)

• Inadequate capacity

– Institutional capacity

• Government concentrated training on energy sector

specifically Petroleum Exploration & ProductionDepartment and environmental sector left behind

• Experts in environmental assessment still lacking

• staff have limited training in oil related activities yet are

expected to monitor the activity in regulatory agencies

• Staff numbers- high demand on the staff to monitor

• Equipments – to monitor oil activities



UWA Staff attempting to put off fire manually near

an oil well head



Pipes burnt in QENP



Challenges (3)

Limited financial resources (activities imposed

on us because of oil exploration)

– monitoring compliance,

– Additional ecosystem monitoring,

– re-planning and re-zoning the park

– New infrastructure e.g. new tourism trails,

accommodation facilities as alternatives



WHAT IS UWA DOING



Compliance monitoring

• Review all EIAs of oil developments in the PAsand ensure activities have minimal impacts onthe PAs

• Carry out compliance monitoring on a daily basis.

The headquarter staff give backstopping to fieldstaff on a quarterly basis

• Have designated dedicated staff to undertakecompliance monitoring

• Recruited 100 rangers to work with oil companies

• Have a warden based in the field in charge of oilmonitoring



Capacity building

Undertaking building of capacity through staff

training and study visits

– Over 50 rangers and wardens trained on

basic facts regarding oil impacts

– Planning another round of similar training

– Senior staff of the organization have under

taken study tours to outside countries e.gCanada and Gabon to get experience



Capacity building for UWA staff



Planning to establish and fully equip Field

monitoring Units for Petroleum activities in

Murchison NP, Toro Semliki WR and Queen

Elizabeth National Park Recruiting staff

Building accommodation and office

Basic lab and lab equipment

Other equipment – vehicles, computers, cameras,

GPS

Create a unit at headquarter in charge of oil and gas



Developing monitoring tools

• Developed operational guidelines for oil companies operating in

PAs (draft) – To minimize long and short - term negative impacts of oil and

gas developments on the integrity of protected areas andassociated ecological processes.

• Developed an MoU between UWA and TOTAL for operations inMFNP

• Developing a sensitivity atlas for MFNP

• Reviewing the GMPs of some key PAs to take into account oilimpacts

- Looking at alternatives for tourism where applicable (newtourism trails and circuits)



Research

• Working with WCS to carry out research on impacts ofoil on animal movement e.g collaring of animals,

• Working with oil companies in carrying outbiodiversity surveys e.g ground surveys of birds,

mammals, and fish

• Working with oil companies in generating informationon avoidance features

• Worked with WWF to carry out a survey on impact ofoil on tourism

• Working with companies in sensitizing and updatingthe tourism stakeholders on oil activities in the parks



National level

• Working with the environment technical

monitoring committee (NEMA, Water, NFA,

PEPD, Fisheries, Wetlands) to ensure

compliance

• Participated in preparing the Strategic

Environmental Assessment (SEA)

• Participated in developing the Sensitivity atlas

for the Albertine Graben

• Albertine Graben Monitoring Plan



Other interventions• Provide information on park rules to oil

workers• Advocating for use of appropriate

technologies to reduce impacts (directional

drilling, smaller rigs)• No waste in the park

• No flaring in the park

• All infrastructure should be out of the parkincluding worker’s camps

• Minimise number of workers on the drill site



Conclusions

• Having successfully explored, Government is nowentering into the development phase.

• This phase is inevitably going to increase the

negative impacts on the protected areas andpossibly tourism.

• If the country has to benefit from both resources,

the two have to sustainably coexist.• UWA’s duty therefore is working closely with all

partners to ensure this co-existence more so

given the fact that oil is a finite resource.



Conclusions

• I thank the organizers, the Directors of Africa Centre

for Media Excellence for according UWA an

opportunity to interact and share with senior

editors from the media who are the gate keepers

who determine what the public consumes in the

media.

• I appreciate the media organizations for the growing

interest in conservation and eco-tourism issues byallocating dedicated pages and air space in the

various outlets thereby creating more interest from

other stake holders and consumers of our products.



Conclusions

• I commend the media for helping UWA topromote new innovations like technologies

including the new payment system using the

Wildlife cards to access our parks

• I applaud the editors for always readily availing

reporters to cover our functions and events evenon short notice.



Conclusions

• As the channels of mass communication upon

which the society looks for informative and

educative information which most people take as

divine truth, I urge you as key partners and stake

holders to work to promote the cause ofconservation and the importance tourism plays as

an engine of economic growth.

• UWA is always ready to provide timely and accurateinformation in regard to Wildlife conservation and

tourism matters particularly to the media personnel

as well as sharing with you our success stories.



Conclusions

• Do not hesitate to cross check with us any

information from the social media or other sourcessince we run an open door policy at UWA.

Together we conserve for Generations

Thank you very much for your

kind attention

Oil and Wildlife Conservation in Uganda

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