Biodiversity Conservation and Geothermal Development

Abstract

Major geothermal prospects occur in fragile ecosystems constituting a rich tapestry of all forms of life and the ecosystems that they are part. Ensuring intra and intergenerational equity in geothermal development is critical for conservation of biological diversity. Relative to the variety of habitats, biotic communities and ecological processes in the biosphere, biodiversity is an important pre-requisite for all forms of life to exist as it provides valuable ecosystem services. Nevertheless, there exist several threats to biodiversity and biodiversity conservation including loss of habitat, overexploitation, pollution, and climate change. To mitigate this, several environmental concerns including binding, non binding and local agreements involved in achieving biodiversity conservation are reviewed in this paper with case examples from the Olkaria geothermal power project, situated within the Hells Gate National Park in Kenya.