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Karen Ragoonanan-Jalim Environmental and Regulatory Manager BP Trinidad and Tobago

Karen Ragoonanan-Jalim Environmental and Regulatory Manager BP Trinidad and Tobago. Keeping the license to operate through sustainable Community Environmental Education and Relationship Building. bpTT operates out of the south east of Trinidad, i.e. the Mayaro / Guayaguayare community.

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Karen Ragoonanan-Jalim Environmental and Regulatory Manager BP Trinidad and Tobago

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  1. Karen Ragoonanan-Jalim Environmental and Regulatory Manager BP Trinidad and Tobago Keeping the license to operate through sustainable Community Environmental Education and Relationship Building

  2. bpTT operates out of the south east of Trinidad, i.e. the Mayaro / Guayaguayare community

  3. Why this Project…. • Recent survey by Central Statistics Office (CSO, 2005) confirms that Mayaro/Guayaguayare is still one of the poorest communities in Trinidad • The community perceived all Operators and Developers as uncaring to their needs and was therefore opposed to all development in their area • Challenges from the community during public consultations were not technically sound • Community concerns were mainly around short-term gains rather than long term environmental and social impacts • Public consultations became “public confrontations”

  4. Business Drivers • Development Projects can be delayed by poor community relations • The need to be aligned to the bp Group aspiration of sustainable development with “Green Progress” • The need to build and sustain “Good Neighbor” relationships with the community in which we operate It was the right thing to do…

  5. Objectives of the Program • Improve environmental awareness among the residents of the community • Provide residents of the community with the necessary tools to understand and appreciate projects and associated impacts • Improve the community’s understanding of environmental law and legislation • Ensure residents are aware of the legitimate avenues available to address complaints and gain feed-back on environmental issues arising out of development in their community • Increase the environmental knowledge base of the community so that they may challenge development on a sound technical rather then emotional basis

  6. What We Did • Developed and delivered a world-class Community Environmental Training Program to the community in which we operate: • Initial registration of 50 persons, with an average of 35 – 40 persons per class. Classes were conducted April 2006 – April 2007 • Class consisted of wide cross-section of the community and included housewives, fisher folk, teachers, students, retirees, etc. • Introduced the internet to some of these persons and made these facilities available to them for research purposes • Encouraged interactions between otherwise strained groups within the community as they all had to work together during class, group sessions, etc.

  7. Program Delivery • Program developed in-house by bpTT employees • Multi-disciplinary team throughout HSSE created the syllabus • Syllabus developed in five areas • Introductory • Advanced • Legislation • Monitoring and Measuring • Projects and their Impacts

  8. Program Delivery • Introductory and advanced sessions offered by bpTT HSSE Department • Introductory sessions included such topics as food chains and food webs, different ecosystems and their characteristics, synergism between ecosystems, etc. • Advanced sessions went into stressed environments and using different parameters (e.g. benthic organisms) as stress indicators • Basic textbook subjects that were delivered without a corporate influence

  9. Program Delivery • Environmental law and legislation delivered by the local environmental regulatory agency and independent lawyers • Invitations also to the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries to highlight their requirements • Monitoring and measuring presented by Subject Matter Experts, e.g. field consultants • Projects and their impacts presented by fellow operators in the Mayaro / Guayaguayare community as well as bpTT • Lectures interspersed appropriately with field trips • Workshops and case studies followed lectures to allow for practical implementation of taught material

  10. Successes to date • Field Trips – participants are able to connect classroom discussions with what they see in the field • Research – participants eagerly take the opportunity to use the internet services to research areas of interest/concern to them • Cohesive Group – participants gained confidence and formed a Community Based Organization (CBO) to have “strengthen in numbers” in addressing their community environmental issues • Public Consultations – this is perhaps the best measure for us we saw a massive change in the way public consultations were undertaken by residents

  11. Challenges • Difficult to source external lecturers e.g. Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries, Environmental Management Authority, other operators in area, independent lawyers, etc. • Class scheduling vs attendance • Fluctuating attendance for several reasons • Extended program duration • Difficulty in maintaining the planned program schedule

  12. Thank You! Questions?

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