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.
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
RSS