Overseas Projects
Many UK companies work overseas and require ecological assessments to be carried out to meet their own best practice requirements and the national standards of the country concerned. Such work usually presents special challenges in evaluating wildlife communities, obtaining data by novel methods and, often, covering very large areas with limited resources of time and manpower. Working alongside local specialists, the interchange of methods and experience can be very rewarding and productive not only for the job in hand but for future application to other tasks elsewhere.
Projects we have undertaken include:-
- Assessment of the potential effects of development of the Chirag oilfield in the Caspian Sea, on waterfowl populations of exceptional international importance and advice on oil spill contingency plans, pipeline landfall selection and terminal construction location.
- Assessment of the ecological effects, principally related to wild goats and other large mammals, of oilfield development on land adjacent to the Kirthar National Park, Sind, Pakistan and development of mitigation measures.
- Assessment of the effects on flora and fauna including fisheries of expansion of a large-scale hard-rock quarry in the Irish Republic.
- Assessment of risks to seafowl from the proposed development of an oil-transhipment terminal on the Black Sea coast of Georgia.
- Assessment of the ornithological importance of the Special Protection Area at the mouth of the Seine estuary, France, covering wildfowl, waders and seabirds at sea, as a basis for determining the effects of expansion of the Port of Le Havre, and advice on mitigation and compensation measures.
- Appraisal of the technical feasibility of establishing two major wetland nature reserves in Pakistan to mitigate the effects of new reservoir and other irrigation-related works, and production of costed business plans.
- Preparation of a comprehensive management plan for the Xianghai breeding crane reserve, Jilin Province, China. The reserve embraces over 100,000ha of reedbed, lakes and grassland.
- Development of an objective methodology for assessing the potential ecological importance and sensitivity of arid lands in the Thar Desert, Pakistan, to guide the location of infrastructure associated with oilfield development.
- Preparation of the freshwater section of the Biodiversity Monitoring Master Plan for Estonia.
- Development and application of a methodology for initial assessment of the ecological value and sensitivity of land on proposed oil pipeline routes in Azerbaijan, based on detailed photographic records and target notes collected by field surveyors.
- Advice on the integration of farming and forestry practices with the ecological objectives of a National Park in Russia.
Red-crowned crane - one of several endangered species in the Xianghai reserve for which a full management plan was prepared.