Impacts from oil and gas exploration projects on the biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Amazon shelf: a conservation planning approach

• Grant number: 24/09682-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: November 25, 2024
• End date: July 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Ecosystems Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Ronaldo Bastos Francini Filho
• Grantee: Thomás Nei Soto Banha
• Supervisor: Sylvaine Giakoumi
• Host Institution: Centro de Biologia Marinha (CEBIMAR). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Sebastião , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Sicily, Italy
• Associated to the scholarship: 22/10690-3 - Ecology and Conservation of the Great Amazon Reef System, BP.DR

Abstract

The activities of the oil and gas (O&G) industry pose a significant threat to the marine environment at all stages of operations, with negative ecological and socioeconomic impacts often far outweighing the benefits. Brazil, one of the world's top ten oil producers and consumers, has recently increased its efforts to expand O&G exploration in the Amazon Continental Shelf (ACS). The ACS contains the world's largest continuous belt of mangroves and an extensive mesophotic reef system, both of which are highly vulnerable to oil spills and vital to thousands of local traditional and indigenous communities. The region harbors one of the most important fisheries in Brazil, targeting a wide variety of species, both vertebrates and invertebrates, particularly the Southern red snapper (Lutjanus purpureus). However, ACS stocks once considered one of the last viable fishing grounds in Brazil, are no longer sufficient to sustain the fishery and are in danger of collapse. It is critical to protect the services and resources of ACS marine ecosystems and the communities that depend on them while supporting new economic activities. Our goal is to apply a systematic conservation planning approach to assess the potential consequences of further oil and gas industry development in the ACS by evaluating (i) how to account for the vulnerability of fisheries and biodiversity to direct and indirect impacts (i.e. fishery relocation to more vulnerable areas) and (ii) the trade-offs between oil and gas exploration, biodiversity conservation, and fisheries activities. In addition, we will examine how the establishment of the proposed marine protected areas in the ACS would affect oil and gas activities, fisheries, and biodiversity.