- NGOs are calling on the government of the Republic of Congo to revoke a permit allowing oil exploration in Conkouati-Douli National Park, the country’s most biodiverse area.
- They argue that oil exploration and exploitation will have a catastrophic impact on the park and local communities living in and around it.
- They also argue that the project runs counter to agreements reached with international donors to fund forest protection and breaks the Republic of Congo’s own environmental law.
Oil exploration in the Republic of Congo’s Conkouati-Douli National Park threatens the local biodiversity, communities and environment, according to U.S.-based NGO Earth Insight.
The Conkouati oil block was awarded by the ROC government to a Chinese company at the start of this year, just six weeks after the government had accepted $50 million from the European Union and the Bezos Fund to protect its forests, the latest in a series of similar international agreements.
In a report published in June, Earth Insight, which works with affected communities to produce maps of at-risk areas of land and water, shows that the oil block occupies a large chunk of the protected area and the buffer zone of the park.
This nature reserve is located “where the rainforest meets the ocean,” on the Atlantic coast at the western edge of the ROC. Conkouati-Douli covers an area of nearly 8,000 square kilometers (3,100 square miles), of which 46% is terrestrial area and the rest marine. It’s rich in biodiversity, home to western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla), forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) and Atlantic humpback dolphins (Sousa teuszii), as well as endangered central chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) and other threatened species.
Earth Insight’s report shows that the Conkouati oil exploration license covers an area of 1,600 km2 (620 mi2), of which 930 km2 (360 mi2) overlaps with the national park, covering more than a quarter of its terrestrial portion.
Rights group Amnesty International reports that around 7,000 people live near the oil block, with the highest population density found south and southwest of the national park’s buffer zone. This area supplies bushmeat to Pointe-Noire, the ROC’s second-largest city. The Programme on African Protected Areas & Conservation website reports the area is also facing pressure from industrial development.
A breach of the ROC’s environmental laws
Earth Insight say oil exploitation in this region would be catastrophic for human and economic rights, the environment and governance, due to the environmental degradation associated with oil extraction.
“Even though the Minister of Hydrocarbons has previously stated that Congo requires social and environmental impact studies, Amnesty International’s ‘In the Shadow of Industries’ report shows that these studies do not prevent the risks of oil exploration,” Anna Bebbington, a senior analyst at Earth Insight, told Mongabay in an email interview.
“The loss of forest to oil infrastructure such as roads and boreholes would fragment the habitat of critically endangered species such as the African forest elephant and the western lowland gorilla,” Bebbington added.
She said the threat is particularly serious because of the risk of contaminating the water that sustains both the ecosystem and local communities: more than half of Conkouati-Douli’s total area is marine.
In a joint statement published on June, 14 local NGOs accused the government of “trampling on its commitments to protect the environment.” The organizations are demanding the license awarded to China Oil Natural Gas Overseas Holding United be withdrawn or canceled.
For France and the European Union, the main donors funding the national park, the awarding of the oil permit has proved a source of embarrassment. “A recent decree prompted us to reconsider an exploration license granted in the park, in a protected area. We then had to highlight this highly sensitive issue again,” Claire Bodoni, the French ambassador to the ROC, told media in early March after a meeting with the ROC environment minister.
Investing in renewable energy
When Conkouati-Douli National Park was established in 1999 (it was previously a wildlife reserve, without a marine component), oil exploration and exploitation were prohibited in its wetland areas, according to both Earth Insight and Greenpeace Africa. The Earth Insight report notes that these activities were only permitted in a designated development zone. By granting an exploration license, the groups say, the government has breached a 2008 law prohibiting the exploration and exploitation of fossil fuels in protected areas.
The ROC environment ministry didn’t respond to Mongabay’s inquiries.Bebbington recommended that instead of drilling for oil in Conkouati-Douli, the ROC government should develop renewable energy sources. The cost of renewables continues to decline, potentially making expensive investments in oil extraction and fossil fuel power generation less feasible. Bebbington added that African nations should avoid “developing toxic energy systems that have led to climate change, pollution, and severe health impacts elsewhere in the world.”
The development of extractive industries in the national park runs counter to the aims of advancing conservation and ecotourism in Conkouati-Douli, which is currently the ROC’s most popular ecotourism destination. “Supporting rural-urban connections and improving access to regional centers will be crucial for boosting local economies and promoting sustainable rural development,” Bebbington said.
“Our request is simple,” said Murtala Touray, program director at Greenpeace Africa. “We want the Congolese government to honor its commitments to protect the forests and the people who live there by revoking the Conkouati oil license. Africa needs to show strong leadership to meet the challenge of global climate change.”
This story was originally published here on Aug. 2, on our French site.
Oil firm Perenco eyes new blocks in DRC amid criticism of its track record
Banner image: Elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis). Image by Lucy Keith-Diagne via iNaturalist (CC BY 4.0).
FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post. If you want to post a public comment, you can do that at the bottom of the page.
Credits
