The short film, which was launched during a webinar, highlights the dangers posed to the national park and local communities by oil exploration in the area. Together with Salonga National Park, the world’s second-biggest tropical rainforest reserve, these vulnerable areas may be auctioned in a new series of oil permits (https://reut.rs/3h8rGBJ) putting at risk not only endangered species, but also the source of income for many local communities.

Through this petition (https://bit.ly/3jB3Jo7), climate activists are appealing for support to bring oil exploration in the area to a stop, in order to avert the adverse effects on the communities and the environment.

Landry Ninteretse of 350.org said, “Virunga national park is one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world. Any oil activity in the park and its surrounding areas could permanently damage the rich ecosystems and biodiversity of the area and negatively impact hundreds of thousands of community members whose livelihoods depend on the park’s resources and activities. The government of DR Congo needs to put the environment and the people first, as opposed to furthering the interests of the companies that have been granted permits for exploration.”

Andre Moliro, Climate activist in DRC said, “The government should act in the interest of its citizens by protecting them and creating opportunities that benefit communities’ livelihoods and preserve the natural resources in the region. Access to clean energy is an integral part of sustainable development and commitments to mitigate climate change should be driving efforts to develop sources of alternative and renewable energy.”

Justin Mutabesha, Climate activist based in Goma, DRC said, “The need to hasten our efforts and support the drive for ecosystem preservation and clean energy access for all is critical. It should therefore be the government’s priority to ensure that no oil exploration or pollution occurs in Virunga and to accelerate sustainable livelihoods for the people and rich ecosystems of the area.”

Between 2005 – 2010, the Congolese government through the Ministry of Hydrocarbons approved licenses for oil concessions to foreign fossil fuel companies like Efora, Total, Socco, Dominion Petroleum to explore and operate seismic tests. This move is in violation of Ordinance-Law 69-041 of August 22, 1969, on nature conservation and international conventions ratified by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Watch the documentary: Fossil Free Virunga.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of 350.org.

For interviews and additional information contact:
350Africa.org
Christine Mbithi
Email: christine.mbithi@350.org
Telephone: +254725906695

Featured Image: Oren Cohen/Scopio

The post Climate activists oppose oil exploration, call for a Fossil Free Virunga in new film appeared first on African Conservation Foundation.

More than 100 civil society organizations have written to the President of the African Development Bank, Mr. Akinwumi Adesina, warning the bank against financing the East African Crude Oil Pipeline, which they call “an exceptionally high-risk project.”  The proposed 1,445-kilometer pipeline from Hoima, Uganda to the port of Tanga in Tanzania would be the longest heated pipeline in the world.

Organizations from Africa as well as Europe, the United States and Asia expressed grave concern over a request from the governments of Uganda and Tanzania to the African Development Bank for funding of the pipeline project, which they say poses global climate risks, local environmental harms and threatens the livelihoods of millions of people in East Africa.

The pipeline would enable industrial-scale oil extraction at Uganda’s Albertine Graben, which will jeopardize the Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda’s second-most visited national park and home to rare and endangered species, including eastern chimpanzees, elephants and lions. The pipeline would also threaten ecologically important mangroves on Tanzania’s coast that support an array of marine life and the livelihoods of approximately 150,000 people there.

“We urge the African Development Bank to reject Uganda and Tanzania’s request to help finance the East Africa Crude Oil pipeline. The bank should be seeking opportunities to fund renewables that can contribute to the region’s energy needs in a clean and rights-compatible manner instead,” said Diana Nabiruma, Senior Communications Officer of the Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO), based in Uganda.

If constructed, the pipeline would be the longest heated pipeline in the world, traversing heavily populated districts in both Uganda and Tanzania and carrying an estimated 216,000 barrels of crude oil per day (10.9 million metric tons per year).  The emissions produced when this fuel is burned would be at least 34.3 million metric tons CO2-equivalent (CO2e) per year, dwarfing the current annual emissions of the pipeline’s two host countries combined, and adding roughly as much carbon to the atmosphere as Denmark produces annually.

The letter’s authors point out that if the African Development Bank approved the funding request for the pipeline, it would be acting against its commitment to meet the Paris Agreement goals as well as its commitment to support the transition to renewable energy.

“At a time when the world needs to come together urgently to decarbonize our energy and transport sectors, the last thing that Africa’s premier development bank should be considering is the financing of a massive  oil pipeline,” said  Eugenie Cha, Africa Program Director for Inclusive Development International. “This project is not only wholly incompatible with the African Development Bank’s climate commitments, but it also poses unacceptable risks to local communities and ecosystems that will make it all but impossible to meet the bank’s own environmental and social safeguards.”

Between 9,500 and 14,500 farms would be affected by the pipeline’s construction. Nearly a third of its length (460 kilometers) would be constructed in the basin of Africa’s largest lake, Lake Victoria. More than 30 million people depend on Lake Victoria for water and food production. Moreover, the pipeline will cross important wetlands that meet the water needs of millions of people.

“Potential oil spills from EACOP due to various factors will have disastrous consequences for people and nature. One of the major risks is freshwater pollution and the degradation of wetlands, which provide vital ecosystem services and livelihoods to communities in the region.  This is why it is so important not to fund such infrastructure developments within areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem services; areas that are not only important for communities but also essential to achieving the Aichi Biodiversity Targets of national governments within the framework of the Convention of Biological Diversity,” Henk Simons Senior Expert Nature Conservation at IUCN National Committee of The Netherlands.

The pipeline is under development by three oil companies: Tullow, Total and CNOOC in partnership with the Ugandan and Tanzanian state-owned oil companies. South Africa’s Standard Bank (via its subsidiary Stanbic Bank Uganda), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation of Japan and China’s ICBC are reported to be the project’s financial advisors. Debt financing for the pipeline is expected to amount to approximately USD 2.5 billion.

Project developer Total was recently taken to court by environmentalist groups for failures to comply with human and environmental rights requirements under the French Duty of Vigilance Law.

“With impacts on the climate, nature and local people this severe and local opposition to the project mounting, no prudent bank should be willing to back this project,” said Ryan Brightwell, Researcher and Editor with BankTrack. “Banking sector standards like the Equator Principles are simply not up to the job of ensuring risks on this scale are well managed.””

Construction of the pipeline also threatens to open up oil extraction in neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo, where exploration has been temporarily halted. “We in the DRC are also concerned that this project could potentially endanger vitally important and biodiverse ecosystems, such as Virunga National Park,” said Bantu Lukambo of DRC-based IDPE

“The campaign to stop this pipeline has growing appeal in Africa because it’s very clear that the 300 permanent jobs the pipeline is expected to create won’t come close to compensating for the damage to the environment or the loss of jobs in agriculture, tourism and mangroves that will result from the pipeline’s construction and operation.    The African Development Bank should reject this request,” said Brian Katabazi of Centre for Energy Governance in Uganda.

Read the letter here.

Please sign the petition here.

Click here for more information.

The post 100+ civil society organisations to the African Development Bank: Don’t finance the East African Crude Oil Pipeline appeared first on African Conservation Foundation.

The CSOs made the call following the launch of Uganda’s second competitive oil exploration licensing round on May 8, 2019.

At the launch in Mombasa, Kenya, Uganda’s Minister for Energy and Mineral Development, Hon. Irene Muloni, opened up five blocks for bidding.

Among the blocks is Ngaji oil block, which is located in the ecosensitive Lake Edward and Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP) in Uganda. The above are shared and border DRC’s Virunga National Park (ViNP) in the Albertine Graben.

On the other hand, Hon. John Kwet-Mwen Kwet, the Minister of Hydrocarbons in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) also rolled out the call for bids for 21 oil blocks some of which are located within the Albertine Graben.

Block V, which is located in Virunga National Park in the Albertine Graben, is one of the blocks that could be put up for licensing.

TOURISM OVER OIL

Through a letter dated May 20, 2019, the CSOs remind the presidents of the ecological, economic and social importance of the sensitive ecosystems in the Albertine Graben and call on them to protect them from oil exploitation.

“The Albertine Graben harbors some of the most sensitive ecosystems of national and international importance.

For instance, it is home to Virunga National Park in the Eastern DRC which is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The park accommodates 43% of Africa’s bird species, 27% of Africa’s mammals and more than 10% of its reptiles, amphibians, and plants in addition to several rare and endangered species that exist nowhere else in the world.

The Albertine Graben is also home to Queen Elizabeth National Park and part of Lake Edward in Uganda.

Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda is classified a Humanity and Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO while Lake Edward is classified as a Ramsar site,” part of the CSOs’ letter to presidents Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and Felix Tshisekedi of Uganda and DRC respectively reads.

The CSOs remind the presidents that not only does the diverse ecosystem in the Albertine Graben generate huge revenues from tourism, agriculture, fisheries and others, more money could be made if investments in economic activities such as tourism were promoted.

“For instance, 2017 estimates from World Wildlife Fund (WWF) International indicate that if Virunga National Park is managed sustainably, it has the potential to generate over US$235 million per year for the DRC government. This is way beyond what the oil industry would generate.”

RESPECT INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS ON CONSERVATION, CLIMATE CHANGE

The CSOs further remind the presidents of the national and international obligations they have to protect ecosenstive areas of world importance.

“Both the Ugandan and DRC governments are signatories to the Ramsar and UNESCO Conventions on conservation.

These conventions make it mandatory for all signatory countries to commit to avoid any activities that might directly or indirectly degrade the cultural and natural heritage of Ramsar and World Heritage sites.

If oil exploration is undertaken in Lake Edward, Virunga national park, Queen Elizabeth national park and other sensitive ecosystems, it would be an abuse of our countries’ commitments,” the CSOs say.

They also remind the presidents of Uganda and the DRC that oil exploitation is against the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement.

“Both Uganda and DRC are signatory to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change which came into force during the 21st Conference of Parties (COP) meeting in Paris, France in 2015.

The agreement calls on all signatory countries to cut their Greenhouse Gas Emission [GHG] and limit the global temperature rises to less than 2 degrees Celsius or to pre-industrial levels of less than 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The commitments made by our countries under the Paris Climate Change Agreement mandate your excellencies to ensure that any activities that result in the generation and release of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere are limited. Fossil fuels are the biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.

Moreover, oil exploitation itself contributes to the carbon footprint that our countries must limit per commitments under the Paris Climate Change Agreement,” the CSOs write.

DANGERS OF OIL EXPLOITATION

The CSOs, which warn of the dangers of oil exploitation in Africa including environmental degradation, state appropriation of natural resources at the expense of communities, human rights abuses, conflict and others call on the presidents to:

1. Immediately stop any plans to carry out oil exploration and exploitation activities in sensitive ecosystems of the Albertine Graben including Ngaji oil block, Block V in Virunga National Park, Salonga National Park, Ramsar sites such as the Lufira river basin and other UNESCO in addition to Ramsar sites.
2. Respect the national and international commitments including commitments made under the Paris Climate Change Agreement to address climate change.
3. Scale up national commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with global goals and commitments.
4. Promote tourism as an engine of sustainable economic development and promotion of community livelihoods.
5. Prioritize investments in renewable energy to promote sustainable development of our economies.
6. Adopt integrated management and cross-sectorial approaches that take into account the trade-offs of food and energy production, infrastructure, freshwater, and biodiversity conservation.

The Ugandan and DRC CSOs in addition to their international partners that have written to the Uganda and DRC presidents are shown below.

The post Local and international organisations call on Ugandan and DRC presidents to protect sensitive ecosystems in new oil licensing round appeared first on African Conservation Foundation.