TotalEnergies EP PNG has developed a Biodiversity and Ecosystems Policy to guide the development of the Papua LNG project. TotalEnergies EP PNG will follow the Mitigation Hierarchy throughout the Project life. All biodiversity offsets will be in place beyond the Project lifetime. Striving for continuous improvement, TotalEnergies EP PNG will develop plans for training, monitoring, evaluation and management through a Project BES Strategy implemented through a BES Action Plan (BESAP). The BESAP will address the requirements of IFC PS 6 (Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Management of Living Natural Resources), which includes Natural Habitat, Critical Habitat, Invasive Species and Protected Areas. Partners, contractors and suppliers will be held to TotalEnergies EP PNG’s high standards to ensure the successful delivery of a world-class Project.
Biodiversity Strategy
TotalEnergies PNG will develop a Biodiversity and Ecosystems Strategy which will outline how the environment is managed to protect the Biodiversity and Ecosystems Services values of the Papua LNG projects area. The Papua LNG EIS identified the major potential risks to, or impacts on, these values. This formed the basis for developing goals and objectives for the Strategy, which then followed a hierarchy of avoidance, reduction and remedy, including the offset of residual biodiversity-related impacts attributable to the construction of PNG LNG facilities and infrastructure.
The identification of biodiversity values of the Upstream area was informed by surveys conducted over the past 20 years, as well as pre-construction surveys conducted as part of Papua LNG, and other research. Communities are linked to biodiversity values through their reliance on subsistence harvesting and a close physical and spiritual relationship to ancestral territories.
The overall goal of the Biodiversity and Ecosystems Services Strategy is to achieve Net Gain.
Ecosystems Services
Ecosystem services are direct and indirect benefits that humans derive from their local environment for their wellbeing and survival. There are four types of ecosystem services: provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting services.
Provisioning services are products from ecosystems, such as food, water and resources, including wood and medicines. Regulating services include climate regulation, flood regulation and other natural hazard regulation, pollination, water purification and more. Cultural services include non-material benefits such as spiritual enrichment, intellectual development, recreation and aesthetic values. Supporting services are those which relate to habitat functioning such as photosynthesis, the water cycle and nutrient cycles are the basis of ecosystems, which in turn allow us to support ourselves.