RIASSUNTO
Abstract
During its recovery from war and the development of infrastructures, Angola has relied on the income from the oil industry to support the increasing demands for the reconstruction of its infrastructure and economy. The rapid growth of the oil industry in Angola was accompanied by a greater interest in environmental protection, specifically in areas of oil exploration and production operations. The Cabinda Gulf Oil Company—Chevron (CABGOC)—has implemented a successful environmental program to protect three endangered sea turtle species in its Angolan operational areas. The objective of the Malongo Sea Turtle Protection Program to mitigate the influence of the Malongo camp operations on the sea turtle nesting habitat of the olive ridley turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea), leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), and green turtle (Chelonia mydas). The Health, Environment and Safety (HES) environmental team and a team of four surveyors (former Cabinda fishermen) used nest monitoring techniques and high-quality geographic information system (GIS) mapping capability to monitor the sea turtle nests in the 4 kilometers Malongo camp beach. Turtle monitoring included night patrols over a seven month period (September to April), counting nests, GIS mapping of all nests, relocating nests from areas of possible human disturbance, tagging and measuring sea turtles, monitoring hatching success, and releasing sea turtle hatchlings. Since its start in 2002, the program has registered over 1,000 nests, tagged and measured over 40 sea turtles, and released over 29,000 hatchlings to the sea. Additionally, a recent study of the Cabinda coast indicates that the Malongo program is currently the most successful sea turtle protection program in Cabinda in terms of nest hatching success, poaching protection, and documenting nesting patterns. This program has helped build partnerships with the community, oil industry partners, and the Environmental Ministry of Angola as well as increased public awareness on sea turtle protection.
Introduction
The economical and industrial growth of Angola has been accompanied by the development of new projects and increased community exposure to their impact. This growth is more evident within the oil industry, which constitutes 85% of the Angolan GDP (CIA Factbook, 2012). Most of the country depends on some type of subsistence economy and the agricultural and fishing industries have yet to grow to support the increasing population. Concern about the possible negative impact of the oil companies' activities is very prevalent. CABGOC is a Chevron subsidiary operating in the Cabinda province, which has a population that depends mostly on imports, small scale agriculture, and artisanal fishing. Thus, Cabindans have a great interest in protecting their natural resources to maintain sustainability and avoid environmental incidents caused by oil production activities. When implementing projects, Chevron project teams are required to comply with mitigation measures described in their Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) to protect and mitigate the impact of these projects to the natural resources of the where they are being implemented. The baseline data for the sea turtle mitigation measures in those EIAs was collected starting in 2002 when the CABGOC Malongo Sea Turtle Protection Program was created.