The UN’s cultural arm UNESCO has appealed to Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DR Congo) President Joseph Kabila to guarantee there will be no oil exploration in the forest home of rare gorillas where two UK-listed firms hold drilling rights.
SOCO International and Dominion Petroleum were awarded a presidential decree to Block 5 of east DR Congo’s Albertine Graben in June. Plans for a seismic survey include exploding dynamite, despite the fact that the rebel-heavy area overlaps with the protected Virunga National Park.
UNESCO chief Irina Bokova warned Kabila in a letter of “extremely damaging repercussions” of oil activity and asked him to ensure no exploration took place in the park, which is also home to chimpanzees, lions, elephants and migratory birds so rare it has special wetland status.
“I call on you to guarantee that no oil exploration or production will be committed at the heart of the Virunga National Park,” she said in the letter dated Aug. 6, which noted past commitments by DR Congo to protect the World Heritage site.
Local environmentalists say that any exploration would be contrary to DR Congo’s own laws.
“Congolese legislation does not authorize mineral and petrol [gasoline] production in national parks,” said a Nov. 15 letter to Congolese Environment Minister Jose Endundo from the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature.
It said SOCO’s environmental impact assessment, required by law, made no reference to the park’s status as a protected zone.
Separately, a World Bank official said it and other donors were planning to express concern to the government and question how oil development was compatible with Congo’s commitments.
Calls to Kabila’s office for -comment went unanswered on Friday. However, Endundo played down the concerns.
“We’ll do everything to preserve the park, but the Congolese people also have to benefit from the riches under the soil,” he said by telephone.
Endundo said that if oil activities were excluded from the park, he might seek compensation along the lines of a pact signed by Ecuador in August, under which the Andean nation expects payments from rich nations in return for not drilling for oil in a wildlife reserve in the Yasuni National Park.
Operator SOCO, which has 38.25 percent of the block, and Dominion, with 46.75 percent, said in July they would start seismic exploration this year with a view to production after three years. Congo has the remaining share.
Company maps indicate drilling will take place throughout the park and the companies have sent in teams.
“I don’t see any problem if it’s done correctly,” deputy chief executive and chief financial officer for SOCO Roger Cagle said by telephone, adding the company’s partner Dominion was already working in Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park.
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