“Reforming environmentally harmful subsidies is an international priority under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. Research that links industrial subsidies to negative ecological impacts, however, is limited. This paper contributes to the emerging agenda of global “subsidy accountability” research by linking oil and gas subsidies to the decline of endangered caribou herds in British Columbia, Canada. While existing research concretely attributes the decline of caribou herds to industrial activity, including oil and gas development, we suggest there is a need to identify the political-economic structures which drive ongoing industrial development in caribou habitat, including public subsidies. We use government data to map oil and gas wells in critical caribou habitat and determine how many are run by operators receiving provincial fossil fuel “royalty credits”.”
Read more in the article by IBioS Student Fellow Audrey Irvine-Broque and colleagues.