Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) is an alliance of 10 oil sands producers in Canada’s oil sands. There is a need to understand how species at risk (SAR) pose significant business risk to the oil sands industry. Barr created a priority list of SAR by ranking the species by the factors that contribute to a species being a high risk to the oil sands industry. The business risk assessment was calculated by:
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Understanding the interaction between oil sands activities and the key threats (stressors) related to a species’ population decline.
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Assessing a SAR’s potential impacts on business categories such as compliance requirements, land and resource access, social license, media influence on public image, operational requirements, and financial resources.
The assessment helped COSIA better understand the risks of SAR's to the industry and aided in strategic planning.
Pictured below are some of the species included in the assessment; boreal caribou, great gray owl, grizzly bear, northern leopard frog, olive-sided flycatcher, and wolverine.