WWF
Victory for Virunga
Oil company won’t drill in Africa’s oldest national park
© naturepl.com / Jabruson / WWF-Canon
Date:June 11, 2014
Author:Trishna Gurung
© naturepl.com / Bruce Davidson / WWF-Canon
Virunga National Park is home to is more varieties of rare plants and animals than any other protected area in Africa.
WWF celebrates a major victory in protecting Virunga National Park today. Soco International PLC, the London-based multinational oil company, announced that it would end controversial oil exploration inside Virunga.
More than 750,000 global activists joined WWF’s campaign that called on Soco to leave Virunga, Africa’s oldest national park. Today’s victory is in no small part thanks to their strong support as well as the leadership of the US State Department and Members of Congress on this issue.
Today’s news results from mediation following a complaint against Soco filed by WWF with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. In addition to leaving Virunga, Soco has committed to stay out of all other World Heritage Sites around the globe.
Keep oil out
Virunga is home to invaluable biodiversity and rare wildlife—including iconic and endangered mountain gorillas. The protected area in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is also important for people and the local economy. More than 27,000 people fish in Lake Edward—the part of the park where Soco had already begun seismic testing in April—and it is a critical source of freshwater to 50,000 people.
Now that Virunga is safe from this most immediate threat, WWF urges the DRC government to cancel all oil concessions overlapping the park. Only then will Virunga’s irreplaceable value be secure for the future. An independent report commissioned by WWF found the protected area is worth more than $1.1 billion annually if it is developed sustainably, rather than being given over to potentially damaging oil extraction.
Saving wild spaces
The Virunga Mountains are perhaps best known as the setting for Dian Fossey’s groundbreaking research made famous in Gorillas in the Mist. And Virunga National Park has become a symbol for increasing threats to the world’s last remaining wild places. We believe this commitment sends a message that fragile natural areas must be protected. WWF will continue to fight to save wild spaces and species. WWF
BBC
Virunga Park oil hunt in DR Congo halted
A quarter of the world’s endangered mountain gorillas live in Virunga
The hunt for oil is to be halted in Africa’s oldest national park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a UK-based oil firm has said.
Virunga National Park is a Unesco World Heritage site and home to more than 200 endangered mountain gorillas.
Soco International made the concession after the WWF filed a complaint that the company was violating good business practice guidelines.
The world conservation group has now agreed to drop its case against Soco.
In a joint statement, Soco and the WWF said they looked forward “to working responsibly with the Democratic Republic of Congo and its people to ensure that future development benefits both people and the environment”.
Battle to save Africa’s oldest national park told in film
The 7,800 sq km (3,000 sq miles) Virunga park is one of the most ecologically diverse places on Earth, but it has suffered from the years of lawlessness and conflict between armed groups in the region.
More than 50,000 families also depend on the park’s Lake Edward for jobs, food and drinking water, the WWF says.
The BBC’s Maud Jullien in DR Congo says there has been growing international pressure on the London-listed oil firm in recent months.
In a joint editorial in April, South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu, businessman Richard Branson and philanthropist Howard Buffett spoke out against Soco’s activities in the park.
Park head shot
Last week, US-based Human Rights Watch called on the Congolese authorities to fully investigate recent threats and violence against park employees and local activists.
In April, the head of the park, Belgian national Emmanuel de Merode, was shot and seriously injured by armed men.
Emmanuel de Merode worked in an area where many armed groups and poachers operate
Many species live in the vast park which rangers battle to protect
The rights group said the government should examine whether such incidents were linked to the oil exploration after some criticised such plans.
Soco said it would complete its existing programme of work in Virunga within 30 days. According to the WWF, this includes seismic testing in Lake Edward.
As in other African countries, with proper investment, this park can become a leading economic driver for its communities” Raymond Lumbuenamo WWF in DR Congo
The oil firm stated it was committed not to conduct any other operations in the park unless the UN cultural body and the Congolese government said it would not jeopardise Virunga’s World Heritage status.
“Our agreement with WWF focuses the need for the DR Congo government and Unesco to also reach an agreement on the best way to combine development and the environment,” Soco chairman Rui de Sousa said in a statement.
Marco Lambertini, WWF’s director general, said the agreement was a “victory for our planet and for good practices in business”.
“As in other African countries, with proper investment, this park can become a leading economic driver for its communities,” the conservation group’s DR Congo director, Raymond Lumbuenamo, said in a statement.
The park was the subject of recent documentary Virunga, which covered the struggle of Mr de Merode and his rangers to protect the park and its wildlife from militias and the threat of oil exploration.
The park includes forests, savannahs, swamps, active volcanoes and glaciated peaks.
A quarter of the world’s estimated 880 mountain gorillas live there, as well the endangered okapi, which resembles a zebra but is more closely related to the giraffe.
Hippos, elephants, lions and rare bird species can also be found in the park, which was founded in 1925 by King Albert I of Belgium. BBC