According to BBC report, the move is strongly opposed by environmental activists, who say drilling would place wildlife at risk and contribute to global warming.
It said around one-fifth of Virunga national park could be opened to oil drilling.
In a statement released on Friday night, the DRC government defended its right to authorise drilling anywhere in the country and said it is mindful of protecting animals and plants in the two UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Writing in the Inhabitat, an online journal, Joe Cortz observes that these plans come under heavy criticism from inter-governmental organizations and environmental watchdog groups, whom already denounced previous plans. As World Heritage Sites, UNESCO calls drilling and illegal resource extraction continuing threats to conservation in both the Salonga and Virunga.
Oil drilling is not the only issue facing the wildlife in these parks. Poaching and kidnapping remains a major concern in both preserves. After two British tourists were held hostage and a park ranger was killed in the first five months of 2018, government officials have closed Virunga through 2019.
TRT World says Opening up parts of the Virunga and Salonga National Parks to drilling would place wildlife – especially endangered species- at risk and release huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, causing global warming.
In their report called “Not for Sale: Congo’s Forests must be Protected from the Fossil Fuels Industry,” Global Witness investigates the Democratic Republic of Congo government’s attempts to reclassify swatches of the UNESCO protected World Heritage Sites in order to allow oil exploration to take place.
They point out that in contravention of Congo’s oil law; the details of the contract remain unknown. This lack in transparency from a country already embroiled in political crisis raises concerns about the prospect of oil work in the fragile ecosystem.
This announcement comes hours after the parks of Africa threatened by oil development were the focus of a special session of the 42th session of the World Heritage Committee in Manama, Bahrain.
Virunga sits on the forest-cloaked volcanoes of central Africa and is home to over half the global population of mountain gorillas. British company Soco International performed seismic testing there but let its license lapse in 2015.
According to Virunga Community Programs, this news should be alarming considering that the mountain gorilla population, among the most endangered species in the world, has recently just increased by a quarter to slightly over 1000 individuals since the year 2010. It quoted latest figures from wildlife authorities in the Virunga massif.
“The proposed oil drilling in the region is going to be putting them at risk once again,” a statement from Virunga Community Programs read.
The move also comes after it was recently announced that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is soon to export multiple species of protected but endangered wildlife. These include 12 gorillas, 16 booboos, 16 chimpanzees, 8 manatees and 20 Okapis.
“It’s time for conservationists to stand up be counted in protecting the Virunga massif flora and fauna. We should’nt allow the destruction of our national heritage at the expense of man’s thirst for wealth,” says the Virunga Community Programs.
Just recently, the Save Virunga organisation which describes themselves as “a global initiative to protect Virunga, Africa’s Oldest National Park, from oil exploration and exploitation” tweeted that extractive industries are not compatible with World Heritage status.
They have not commented on this announcement from the Congolese government specifically, although they express their sentiments against oil drilling in Virunga massif on their website.
Their website reads, “Virunga should be a place where no oil extraction and pollution occurs, a place where people develop sustainable livelihoods based on healthy and intact ecosystems.
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