keeping the license to operate through sustainable community environmental education and...
TRANSCRIPT
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Keeping the license to operate through sustainable Community Environmental Education and Relationship Building
Karen Ragoonanan-Jalim
Environmental and Regulatory Manager
BP Trinidad and Tobago
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bpTT operates out of the south east of Trinidad, i.e. the Mayaro / Guayaguayare community
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Why this Project….
• Recent survey by Central Statistics Office (CSO, 2005) confirms that
Mayaro/Guayaguayare is still one of the poorest communities in Trinidad
• The community perceived all Operators and Developers as uncaring to
their needs and was therefore opposed to all development in their area
• Challenges from the community during public consultations were not
technically sound
• Community concerns were mainly around short-term gains rather than
long term environmental and social impacts
• Public consultations became “public confrontations”
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Business Drivers
• Development Projects can be delayed by poor community relations
• The need to be aligned to the bp Group aspiration of sustainable development with “Green Progress”
• The need to build and sustain “Good Neighbor” relationships with the community in which we operate
It was the right thing to do…It was the right thing to do…
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Objectives of the Program
• Improve environmental awareness among the residents of the community
• Provide residents of the community with the necessary tools to understand and
appreciate projects and associated impacts
• Improve the community’s understanding of environmental law and legislation
• Ensure residents are aware of the legitimate avenues available to address
complaints and gain feed-back on environmental issues arising out of
development in their community
• Increase the environmental knowledge base of the community so that they may
challenge development on a sound technical rather then emotional basis
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What We Did
• Developed and delivered a world-class Community Environmental
Training Program to the community in which we operate:
− Initial registration of 50 persons, with an average of 35 – 40 persons
per class. Classes were conducted April 2006 – April 2007
− Class consisted of wide cross-section of the community and included
housewives, fisher folk, teachers, students, retirees, etc.
− Introduced the internet to some of these persons and made these
facilities available to them for research purposes
− Encouraged interactions between otherwise strained groups within the
community as they all had to work together during class, group
sessions, etc.
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Program Delivery
• Program developed in-house by bpTT employees
• Multi-disciplinary team throughout HSSE created the syllabus
• Syllabus developed in five areas
Introductory
Advanced
Legislation
Monitoring and Measuring
Projects and their Impacts
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Program Delivery
• Introductory and advanced sessions offered by bpTT HSSE Department
• Introductory sessions included such topics as food chains and food
webs, different ecosystems and their characteristics, synergism
between ecosystems, etc.
• Advanced sessions went into stressed environments and using different
parameters (e.g. benthic organisms) as stress indicators
• Basic textbook subjects that were delivered without a corporate
influence
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Program Delivery
• Environmental law and legislation delivered by the local environmental regulatory agency and independent lawyers
• Invitations also to the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries to highlight their requirements
• Monitoring and measuring presented by Subject Matter Experts, e.g. field consultants
• Projects and their impacts presented by fellow operators in the Mayaro / Guayaguayare community as well as bpTT
• Lectures interspersed appropriately with field trips
• Workshops and case studies followed lectures to allow for practical implementation of taught material
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Successes to date
• Field Trips – participants are able to connect classroom discussions with
what they see in the field
• Research – participants eagerly take the opportunity to use the internet
services to research areas of interest/concern to them
• Cohesive Group – participants gained confidence and formed a
Community Based Organization (CBO) to have “strengthen in numbers”
in addressing their community environmental issues
• Public Consultations – this is perhaps the best measure for us we saw a
massive change in the way public consultations were undertaken by
residents
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Challenges
• Difficult to source external lecturers e.g. Ministry of Energy and Energy
Industries, Environmental Management Authority, other operators in
area, independent lawyers, etc.
• Class scheduling vs attendance
• Fluctuating attendance for several reasons
• Extended program duration
• Difficulty in maintaining the planned program schedule
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Thank You!
Questions?