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Alberta farming, forestry outstrip energy Independent study shows energy rates third for human footprint in vast oil sands of northern Alberta; bitumen mines greatest impact
By GARY PARK For Petroleum News
Agriculture and forestry are responsible for a larger human footprint than the energy industry across Alberta’s three recognized oil sands units, putting a dent in the claims of those who blame the resource for laying waste to the province’s northern region.
The findings emerge in a study by the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute, an independent, not-for-profit scientific organization which reports on the status and trends of the province’s species, habitat and human footprint to help shape natural resource and land-use decision-making.
The ABMI board of directors includes representatives from the Alberta government, environmental non-government organizations, the forest, energy and agriculture sectors and the research community.
The ABMI, run by the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary, said it is guided by a “core set of principles - we are independent, objective, credible, accessible, transparent and relevant.”
Its study of the oil sands region covered the Athabasca, Cold Lake and Peace River units, which cover 21 percent of Alberta’s land area, and is comparable in size to the State of New York.
The ABMI has set up 350 permanent monitoring sites in the region and from 2003 to 2012 it conducted field surveys at 186 of the sites.
Human footprint 13.8% As of 2012, the total human footprint in the oil sands study area was 13.8 percent, with agriculture accounting for 7.4 percent, forestry 2.9 percent and energy 2.2 percent.
The total human footprint area increased to 13.8 percent from 11.3 percent from 1999 to 2012, more than half driven by the creation of the forestry footprint, while energy grew to 2.3 percent from 1.6 percent, with agriculture virtually unchanged.
Overall, the ABMI said 86 percent of the oil sands region has no direct human footprint, while 6.2 percent of the region is managed as protected areas.
The status of 425 species was assessed - data was collected on more than 2,000 species - with biodiversity found to be intact for an average 88 percent, but active oil sands mining operations, which represent a “small portion” of the region, showed “biodiversity intactness values near 0 percent.”
The report said that “managing the cumulative effects of all land-use activities is a key management challenge” in the oil sands, noting that the Alberta government recently initiated an integrated resource management system “to understand and manage the cumulative effects of economic growth.”
“Under this approach, targeted outcomes must be defined and achieved for environmental as well as social and economic values.
‘Early warning signal’ However, Simon Dyer, regional director for Alberta and the North at the Pembina Institute, described the findings as an “early warning signal” for the government about the state of some fragile species” that showed a decline of 20 percent among bird species.
He said that should put pressure on the government to hasten the completion of regulations promised in 2013 to reduce the loss of wildlife and habitat.
Dyer said the government can order remedial action when companies fail to comply with the legally binding benchmarks contained in regional land-use plans for acceptable losses of wildlife and landscapes.
He said the report concluded that reclamation efforts in the oil sands are lagging behind the disturbances caused by expanding mines and in situ pipelines, as well as forestry operations.
A spokesman for the ABMI said he was surprised by agriculture’s large impact in a region where oil sands activities tend to shoulder most of the blame for habitat and wildlife loss.
Separately, government and industry reports point to a reduction of 26 percent in carbon emissions from the oil sands over the 1990-2011 period, while the government has indicated it is poised to increase the carbon tax it charges on greenhouse gas emissions from the oil sands, to lower the carbon intensity by 40 percent.
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