Biodiversity
Our operations’ spatial distribution and variety often interface with protected and sensitive areas. Being knowledgeable about these areas is a step in the prevention and mitigation of risks and associated impacts.
To operate in these areas, in addition to complying with legal requirements and adopting the best practices, we comply with the criteria set forth under our standards and rules aimed at knowing, preventing, and minimizing the risks and impacts to biodiversity and ecosystem services. These documents require that actions aimed at the prevention, mitigation, recovery or compensation of impacts in areas relevant to biodiversity and ecosystem services be developed and monitored at the installation, operation, and deactivation stages of our projects.
We undertake efforts to broaden the organization and availability of environmental information, to subsidize, at a lower cost and faster, several technical and decision-making processes.
The mapping of protected and sensitive areas in Petrobras Units’ areas of influence is a process in permanent development. The location and characterization of such areas is fundamental for managing several SEH processes, from planning the expansion of a unit to the location of a new project, from planning for emergency responses and preparing a sample matrix for environmental monitoring to selecting areas to be benefited in environmental sponsorships, among others.
We use new technologies and processes such as drones, technically known as RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems) for mapping and several other activities, such as pipeline range and production system and area inspection and monitoring, for monitoring environmental protection and recovery areas, monitoring environmental incidents, monitoring cargo and passenger transportation, and for planning and monitoring operating activities, among others, in the Amazon and Sergipe Alagoas Exploration and Production Operating Units, and for monitoring plant coverage recovery in an scrub sandbank area in recovery and of its surroundings, located in a sandy belt of the Cacimbas Beach, in the Municipality of Linhares, state of Espírito Santo. Important data that would only be obtained through a phytosociological survey.
We have developed corporate guidelines for fauna management in our operational units to prevent and mitigate the risks and impacts to fauna, human health, workforce safety, and operational safety, associated to fauna interactions, considering animal welfare in pursuit of these goals. In addition, we have already taken important actions on the subject, highlighting the “Pro-fauna” program, the objective of which is to guarantee the adequate response to incidents involving wildlife at the facilities of the Monteiro Lobato-UTGCA Gas Treatment Unit, in Caraguatatuba, state of São Paulo.
We invest in research and development projects for technological solutions and methodologies that promote the improvement of environmental management and the mitigation of the impacts of our operations. Ongoing projects include environmental characterizations, mitigation or reduction of effects on ecosystems and on biodiversity, and the recovery of degraded and impacted environments by means of reforestation projects and the recomposition of native species, among others. We can highlight the Environmental Characterization Projects of the Santos, Potiguar, and Sergipe Basins that aim to survey, systematize, and provide existing qualified environmental information to the region and the Terrestrial Area Environmental Recovery Project that aims to evaluate and make available low-cost, high-efficiency degraded area recovery technologies for the three main biomes E&P operates in. In view of the gaps in scientific knowledge on marine bioinvasion, we encourage the conduction of research on the subject, particularly on the sun coral, an organism considered invasive in Brazil.
We also support numerous civil society initiatives, through the Petrobras Socioenvironmental Program, the purpose of which is to promote actions for the protection and recovery of species and habitats, as well as associated traditional uses, as a way to preserve and conserve biodiversity in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, also preserving and expanding the products and knowledge of socio-biodiversity.
We are taking part in Biodiversity Conservation. Read about our Case Studies in our Biodiversity Supplement:
