02 08 13 Bloomberg – Congo Park Could Earn $1.1 Billion a Year Without Oil, WWF Says
Virunga Park could provide about 45,000 permanent jobs
through tourism, fisheries and investments in hydropower, the
WWF said today in an e-mailed report prepared by Dalberg Global
Development Advisors. The reserve is home to an active volcano
and animals including about 200 mountain gorillas in danger of
extinction, hippopotamuses and chimpanzees.
Soco International Plc, a U.K. oil company, and France’s
Total SA have oil blocks that overlap with Virunga, located in
eastern Congo. Total has committed not to drill in the park.
Soco should abandon its exploration plans, the WWF said.
“Oil extraction here could have devastating consequences
for local communities that rely on Virunga for fish, drinking
water and their other needs,” Raymond Lumbuenamo, Congo country
director for WWF, said in a separate e-mailed statement today.
In June, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and
Cultural Organization, Unesco, which has labelled Virunga a
World Heritage Site, urged Congo’s government “to cancel all
the oil exploitation permits granted within the property.”
Congo is conducting a strategic assessment of the 800,000-
hectare (1.98 million-acre) park, which is funded by the
European Union.
Conservation Decision
After the EU completes its report “we will have all the
necessary instruments to decide whether we will privilege
conservation or not,” Environmental Minister Bavon N’sa Mputu
told reporters in April. Soco will still need to get approval
from the government for an exploitation permit.
Soco is undertaking aerial surveys of Congo’s oil block 5
in an area of Virunga encompassing savannah and Lake Edward,
according to the company.
“We believe that responsibly conducted commercial
activities can provide important measures of stability by
significantly enhancing local and regional economies, thereby
raising living standards for local communities,” Soco says on
its website.
The park, originally called Albert National Park, was
founded in 1925 by King Albert I of Belgium and initially meant
to protect gorillas in the forests of the Virunga Mountains,
according to its website. Its boundaries were expanded to
encompass Rwindi Plains, Lake Edward and the Rwenzori Mountains
and it now covers 7,800 square kilometers (3,012 square miles).
The park has faced pressure over the years from poaching,
an influx of refugees from the Rwanda genocide, and a series of
internal conflicts including the Kivu War in which rebel forces
took over the site’s head office, according to the website.
The M23 rebel group, which has fought with Congo’s national
army for more than a year in North Kivu province, controls
territory that includes parts of Virunga. About 2,000 tourists
visited the park in 2010 from none in 2008.
–Editors: Paul Richardson, Sarah McGregor, Ana Monteiro