- The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government has granted exploration permits for an oil deposit covering 26% of the surface area of the Congo’s largest biodiversity reserve, the Conkouati-Douli National Park.
- The permits have been granted to the Société nationale des pétroles du Congo (SNPC) and Congo Holding United, a company majority-owned by China Oil Natural Gas Overseas Holding United.
- Home to coastal, marine and forest ecosystems covering 5,000 km2, the Conkouati-Douli National Park is a veritable refuge for biodiversity in the Congo Basin.
This decision has provoked an outcry from environmental organisations such as Earth Insight and Greenpeace, who have joined 13 Congolese non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in “calling on donors to suspend funding for the conservation of the park until the oil and gas exploitation permit is cancelled”.
Conkouati Reserve –
Image credit: Louis-Philippe Lévesque –
Photo – Apr 2014
“The decision to authorise oil exploration in the Conkouati block is a direct threat to the tropical forests and biodiversity that the government of the Republic of Congo and the international community, donors and environmentalists have pledged to protect”, laments Stella Tchoukep, Forest Campaigner at Greenpeace Africa.
“By opening up the Conkouati-Douli national park to extractive activities, key landscapes risk being degraded and fragmented, jeopardising the ecosystem services they provide and the local livelihoods that depend on them,” added Tchoukep.
The park, created by presidential decree in 1999, includes a Ramsar site (a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention), and is home to threatened wildlife species including the western lowland gorilla, the chimpanzee, the leatherback turtle and the forest elephant. In addition, the Conkouati oil block covers a residential area of at least 7,000 people who are expected to suffer environmental impacts from the pumping of crude oil within the park.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
