Presentation
Designing and implementing a meaningful Tier 3 wildlife response element in a large-scale industry oil spill exercise in Africa
DescriptionThe profile of emergency wildlife response continues to grow within the energy industry, while authorities and regulators are taking more interest in wildlife preparedness activities. Operators are increasingly looking to include wildlife related objectives in their oil spill response exercises, which usually serve to test established response plans. However, in regions with limited wildlife preparedness such as Africa, established wildlife plans may be absent or lacking operational detail. In such cases, Operators must seek a novel approach to wildlife-related exercises by using them as a tool to understand the risk to wildlife, assess gaps in capability and as an engagement opportunity to establish relationships with stakeholders who may provide support an incident. Integration of Tier 3 wildlife response experts into exercise design from the outset increases the likelihood of meaningful outcomes for integration into future preparedness activities. By shaping exercise objectives to assess risk and determine feasible wildlife response options, the technical input developed the wildlife section of an Incident Action Plan (IAP) during an exercise can be carried forward into future planning and preparedness efforts. This paper will describe the planning and implementation of the wildlife response component of a large-scale Tier 3 exercise in Angola. The insights presented here by Tier 3 wildlife response experts may be carried forward by any operator, authority or wildlife organisation to aid design of exercises as a meaningful tool to identify gaps in their own wildlife preparedness capability. The overarching aim is to inspire organisations to undertake holistic wildlife preparedness programmes based on established good practice (Ipieca, 2014).
Authors
Event Type
Paper
TimeThursday, May 16th9:00am - 9:20am CDT
Location278-280
Response