karen ragoonanan-jalim environmental and regulatory manager bp trinidad and tobago

Keeping the license to operate through sustainable Community Environmental Education and Relationship Building

Karen Ragoonanan-Jalim

Environmental and Regulatory Manager

BP Trinidad and Tobago

bpTT operates out of the south east of Trinidad, i.e. the Mayaro / Guayaguayare community

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”

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…

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Thank You!

Questions?