Suchergebnisse

Greenland needs development. Oil and mineral extraction is pursued as a means to achieve economical growth. Fisheries, hunting and tourism are the main pillars in the Greenland economy in 2015. These businesses are however sensitive to potential negative impacts from oil and gas development. Local benefits are expected to derive from oil and gas projects, but these benefits cannot be achieved without careful planning and project management. To secure that negative impacts are mitigated and that positive outcomes are achieved, Impact Assessments (IA) have been implemented as in the Greenlandic regulation system in relation to oil and gas projects to promote sustainable development. Additional Impact Benefit Agreements (IBA) have to be negotiated between the communities potentially affected, the Government and the oil companies to assure that social investments are made to secure long-term benefits for the local communities. In the following sections I present a short description of the current situation in Greenland in relation to oil and gas development, then the Impact Assessment tool is introduced and how the tool is included in the oil and gas project management practice for offshore oil exploration in Greenland. Finally I discuss challenges related to securing local benefits when implementing this new industry.

Marine extraction accounts for one third of the world's hydrocarbon production. Several analyses suggest that seismic surveys employed in oil exploration harm marine life; however, their long-term impacts have not been extensively studied. We examine debates between fishers, the oil industry, and governmental authorities over the effects of oil explorations in Tabasco, Mexico. The study employs ideas from historical ontology in tracing the contested production of truth-claims about exploration in the context of scientific uncertainty. It shows how actors, through their different engagements with the sea, and with different degrees of power, frame claims about the relations between exploration and fish. We argue that fishers, through their efforts to "think like fish" produce situated knowledges about the effects of oil exploration. They explain a disappearance of fish by their understanding that seismic surveys disturb fish migration, impair the hearing of fish and cause fish death. Oil company and governmental representatives frame the impacts of oil exploration as insignificant by separating environmental and social dimensions, by isolating individual exploration events, and by arguing that possible effects are transitional. Due to scientific indeterminacy, oil exploration is malleable in the hands of powerful political representations that understate its possible impacts on marine socio-environments. ; Peer reviewed