You can fly for a hundred kilometres across the Central African tropical forest and see no mark of human activity. It's an increasingly rare achievement on this over-exploited planet.

But a closer look reveals that in some small areas, buried in the trees, oil wells are producing over 250,000 barrels a day of high grade crude.

Is this evidence that oil and conservation really do mix? That's what this programme of Earth Report sets out to discover.

The Forest Pharmacy

The Bantu people from Gabon, Central Africa conduct traditional Bwiti healing ceremonies, using a plant from the rain forest known as Iboga. It's now being tried out in western medicine as a wonder cure for drug addiction.

Tropical rain forests contain the largest variety of plant and animal life to be found anywhere in the world. But with ten million hectares of rain forest being cleared across the globe every year - an area the size of Scotland - time is running out to find new wonder cures such as Iboga.

Eighty-five percent of Gabon is still forest and it makes up a quarter of the rain forest of the Congo Basin, second only in size to the Amazon. The rain forest of Gabon is an exception and the oil business is actually part of the reason, partly because oil extraction has meant there has been less pressure on other natural resources.

The Study of the Century

This is bonanza territory for scientists of the USA's venerable Smithsonian Institute. The Smithsonian scientists have teamed up with local scientists, some of whom have expert skills in species identification. They are just completing a mammoth two year study, the most detailed account of the incredible biodiversity of the Gabonese rain forest ever undertaken.

The study is helped by the fact that the country has a relatively low population and good political stability but it still means lots of hard work. The scientists use various methods to get their data. Observational studies mean trudging through the swamp to list all species seen. Estimates of diversity are gained by comparing new species with ones already found. Mist nets, open all day, are also used to catch and examine species such as birds.

The Smithsonian study is as a direct result of a ground breaking partnership with The Shell Foundation, set up as an independent charity by the Royal Dutch Shell Group in 2000. Shell gives access to the study area and in return, takes on many of the recommendations learned from the research to minimise their impact on the forest.

Public Meets Private - Model Partnership?

At the 2002 Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development heavy emphasis was laid on public and private sector partnerships. The partners in Gabon believe they have struck a model collaboration, the first of its kind. Shell has access to the expertise of the Smithsonian scientists to accurately and independently assess the impact of the oil operations. In turn the Smithsonian is adding to the scientific community's imperfect understanding of the dynamics of a rain forest habitat.

But can a partnership between an oil company and a scientific institution really work? Is this a new way forward for environmental protection?

Greening the Mainstay of the Local Economy

Over the last five years oil has accounted for around forty percent of Gabon's Gross Domestic Product, and over eighty percent of its export revenue.

The giant Rabi oil field produced up to seventy percent of the country's oil during the 1990s. It would be difficult to imagine a more ecologically sensitive location for it straddles the corridor between two national parks.

The Smithsonian and Shell are working together to assess, further understand and help reduce the impacts of Shell's activities on biodiversity, as well as help contribute towards long-term management and protection of biodiversity.

Roads have been constructed to be as narrow as possible. On the verges scientists have pioneered a new technique called hydro seeding where a mulch of indigenous plant seed and nutrients encourage re-growth and prevent erosion. Land clearance has been kept to a minimum around well heads.

But the key is that no permanent settlement has been allowed. Most workers complete long arduous shifts and then go back to join their families.

The pattern elsewhere in Africa is for roads to lead to unplanned settlements which then create a local demand for bush meat. Shell has attempted to reduce these impacts by controlling road access, limiting night time driving and banning firearms. Other forests in Africa are being emptied of their wildlife, but for the moment Gabon is escaping the worst depredations.

Forest protection has also been helped by advances in oil exploration and drilling techniques. A "footprint" technique is used to determine exactly how much land needs to be cleared for a drilling rig and equipment, using already cleared space for new wells whenever possible.

Oil companies are no longer restricted to drilling vertically from directly above. Oil reservoirs can also be reached from a ninety degree angle. This means fewer drill sites and less land clearance is needed to access the oil reserves.

But will the steps taken to protect biodiversity around the Rabi oil field be proven to be successful when compared to sites where there has been little or no impact from oil operations?

Parks - Refuges of Diversity

At Loango National Park to the west of Rabi the rain forest extends to the shoreline. Smithsonian scientists have been conducting biodiversity surveys throughout this area known as the Gamba Complex. Already the survey has demonstrated that the area is a critical refuge for Africa's embattled rain forest wildlife.

Several endangered and protected species reside in the park. The huge Leatherback Turtle and three known African species of crocodiles are only some of the forty types of reptiles in the area. Streams form a natural pathway through the dense vegetation of Moukalaba-Doudou National Park, to the east of Rabi. They are also prime sites for scientists studying amphibians and reptiles and it has been discovered that the wildlife diversity is higher than originally thought.

From Oil Town to Ghost Town

In the town of Gamba, sixty kilometres south of Rabi there is a different story to tell. Like Rabi, Gamba is isolated, surrounded by rain forest, lagoon, and ocean. Boat or plane are the only main ways to get here. When oil was discovered here over forty years ago, the environment was on nobody's agenda. Now a settlement of 7,000 has grown around the wells bringing new threats to nature.

Gamba is an oil town and Shell is heavily involved in town life. As the mayor points out, Gamba is Shell Gabon. But after forty years, the flow of oil is ebbing. What will this mean for the town and surrounding environment?

Brian Ward, Director of Shell Africa, says their focus on environmental impacts has shifted from reacting to ecological harm after the fact, to actively planning to avoid damage in the first place. But Alfonso Alonso of the Smithsonian has concerns that once oil extraction becomes economically unviable, Shell will pull out of the area, leaving it open to other less responsible oil companies.

Shell says it doesn't know when it will cease operations. Gamba's citizens have a bigger worry than companies with lower environmental standards coming in. They want a road to link their town with the rest of the country. To some, isolation is not so splendid. Currently, the only access to the outside is by Shell boat - if the company leaves, the movement of people and products would cease.

WWF, the World Wide Fund for Nature, knows the dangers of creating any more roads, equating them to walls that block wildlife. What they would like is to have dialogue with Shell to look at options for reducing the populations of the towns gradually when the company withdraws its operations.

Some people may leave, others may stay to seek an alternative income from the forest, from logging, hunting and conversion to farmland. The conservation organisations are putting a lot of effort on reducing these potential impacts by working together with the national government on a joint management plan of the land to help provide the forest with long term legal protection.

Finding Alternatives

In just three years the government has taken the lead in Central Africa and created thirteen national parks, a giant step in the right direction, but there's still some way to go. Legal protection, however tough, will not work by itself. The Gabonese government doesn't have enough funding or trained staff to effectively manage the parks.

However, there is hope. The Smithsonian Institution, together with other NGOs such as WWF and Ibonga has begun working with the community to raise awareness of the value of the rain forest, and to look for alternative incomes.

Educational programmes, together with local schools and colleges, have formed an important part of the organisations' work, as important as the research itself. Even school teachers are learning about the value of the environment.

In a rain forest most of the wildlife stays hidden for most of the time. Smithsonian photographer Carlton Ward overcomes that problem with camera traps, a method that captures a world not even local people get to see. It is this hidden beauty that could possibly attract attention, and money.

So after the oil, maybe tourists in search of the rain forest experience will bring opportunities to Gabon. A local conference has been organised to discuss the possibility of building an ecotourism industry and, although it is not an easy fix, everyone sees the potential.

Can Oil and Conservation Really Mix?

For the oil company it is crunch time. Will the scientists find that the lengths Shell has gone to at Rabi yield conservation dividends? Is it possible Rabi could host the high levels of species diversity and population density, found in the national parks of Loango and Moukalaba-Doudou?

The preliminary results of the Smithsonian survey shows that the Rabi oil field has a higher level of biodiversity even than that of the surrounding national parks. This shows that scientists, NGOs, and big business can work together to successfully conserve environmental areas.

Smithsonian and Shell are now working through the Energy and Biodiversity Initiative with other big energy firms such as BP, Statoil and Chevron Texaco, to create an international code of practice for companies working in biologically sensitive zones. While each partnership and approach to environmental challenges will be unique, it is this model of working together that gives hope to changing the way corporations do business, benefitting everyone in the process.