Gorilla habitats and pristine forest at risk as DRC opens half of country to oil and gas drilling bids | Oil

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) opens crucial gorilla habitats and virgin forests with oil and gas drilling offers, with plans to cut more than half of the country in fossil fuel blocks.

The blocks opened for the coverage of 124 m hectare (306 m acres) auction of earthly and interior waters described by experts like the “worst place in the world to prospect oil” because they hold large quantities of carbon and shelter some of the most precious wild habitats on the planet, including plain and bonobo of the planet.

This year, the government launched a license tour for 52 blocks of oil; These are added to three previously allocated blocks. On the total area, 64% is an intact tropical forest, according to spatial cartography and analysis in a new report by Earth Insight. This expansion of the development of oil and gas is in contradiction with the commitments of the DRC to protect biodiversity and climate protection, warn the experts.

In July 2022, the DRC government launched calls for tenders for 30 blocks of oil and gas, but this was then canceled, the government citing late submissions and a lack of competition. “The worst place in the world to prospect oil is auction, once again,” said Professor Simon Lewis of the University College of London, who first managed the team that first mapped the peat bogs of the central center. “No credible company would bid oil in the Forests and peat bogs of the DRC, because there is probably not enough oil to be commercially viable, and it will be expensive oil in financial, social and environmental costs.”

Earlier this year, the government announced the flagship initiative for the Kivu-Kinshasa Green corridor conservation, but now 72% of this overlapping area of the oil blocks, according to the report, written in collaboration with the Notre-Terre Sans Petroleum Group based in the DRC, our land without oil [Our Land Without Oil]Cora and Rainforest Foundation UK.

The central bowl – which is the largest tropical peat bog complex in the world – is included in newly designated oil blocks. This large swamp area is the size of Nepal and which houses a rare fauna, including forest elephants, plain gorillas, chimpanzees and endemic birds. It stores about 30 billion metric tonnes of peat carbon.

In recent years, there have been various international efforts to obtain funding to protect the forests of the DRC.

The largest money slice of money was a protection against forests of $ 500 million (417.6 million pounds sterling) signed in the name of the central African forest initiative (CAFI) at COP26. The 10 -year agreement – from 2021 to 2031 – aimed to reduce deforestation and promote the regeneration of 8 m hectares of degraded land and forests.

Until now, only $ 150 million has been transferred to the DRC, well behind nearly $ 400 million which should have been delivered now under the terms of the agreement. Discussions are underway on how to increase the speed of publication of money. A source said that the lack of international funding to make more profitable to maintain standing forests than to the cut in countries such as countries such as the DRC more likely to seek oil and gas transactions. They described it as a “collective failure”.

In addition to conservation impacts, around 39 million people live in the region sold for oil, including many indigenous peoples and forest communities that depend on healthy forests and rivers for survival.

“Imagine: 39 million Congolese … and 64% of our forests could be directly affected by the allocation of these blocks of oil,” said Pascal Mirindi, coordinator of the kerosel free country campaign. “And all this while the government promotes the Kivu-Kinshasa ecological corridor. Where is logic? Where is consistency? We remind our leaders that the Congolese people are the main sovereign. We will not remain silent while some people organize themselves to sell our future. ”

The report calls on the DRC government and international partners to cancel the 2025 oil tender and invest in development models that respect indigenous and community rights. “The development of oil and gas in these fragile ecosystems would have devastating impacts on biodiversity, communities, land rights and global fight against climate change,” said Anna Bebbington, research manager at Earth Insight.

The DRC government did not respond to the request for comments.

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