Sustainable resource development and access to the resource are some of the leading challenges facing industry today. The oil and gas industry is committed to managing physical footprint on the landscape and to minimizing industry-based effects on species, ecosystems and ecosystem components. The challenge facing industry is to minimize impacts to all levels of biodiversity (including flora and fauna) and ecological processes while continuing to develop oil and gas reserves, and to effectively restore impacted areas. At the same time, it is important that the regulatory requirements governing oil and gas activity in these areas be based in science. Thus, research is needed to affect the direction of current and emerging policy and legislation.

Oil and gas producers have in recent years invested millions of dollars in ecological related research projects to address these challenges. The broad focus areas of these projects include the role of predation in woodland caribou population declines; the effectiveness of industry footprint reclamation or functional restoration; the effectiveness of mitigation activities; and wildlife responses to oil and gas activity.

This event provides technical updates of the 2013/2014 industry sponsored research that have had oversight from industry and government technical champions. The intent of projects selected through multi-stakeholder review and funded through the AUPRF program is that they may lead to changes in best practices and regulations. Interspersed among the project-based presentations will be presentations related to recently identified priority issues and initiatives for the oil and gas sector.

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