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Thomas Stenberg
November 19th, 2015
Professor Kathleen Davis
Business, Society and Ethics
The Fight for Virunga:
In an eastern pocket of the Democratic Republic of Congo lies Virunga National
Park, rich in fossil fuels and vegetation, home to many rare species of animals and
tribes who live well off of the abundance of resources and natural generosity given by
the land. A constant battle exists here though, as a wealthy oil corporation tries to
exploit the land for the what it naturally possesses, it does so by any means, funding
rebel militant groups, bribing the corrupt officials and the park rangers; If this
company has its way a beautiful landscape and sensitive ecosystem, home to many,
will be destroyed all in the name of corporate greed.
The Oil Company in question is SOCO oil, founded in 1997, headquartered
out of London, England. SOCO is an Oil and Gas exploration company as well as a
production company for the natural gas. They’re purpose is to exploit international
oil opportunities, and have done so in many third world countries including Yemen,
Angola, the Republic of Congo, and the Democratic Republic of Congo; currently they
have production set up in the Congo as well as Vietnam.
While SOCO doesn’t have a long and storied history of causing global
catastrophes they have found themselves some strong opposition lately in the form
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of many conservation groups, as well as the U.N. and UNESCO, a sub-agency formed
by the U.N. The damage SOCO is capable of inflicting is tremendous however, and
they have managed to choose a location surrounded by frequent and turbulent
conflict; Virunga National Park, Africa’s oldest national park, now sits precariously
on the brink of completely imploding in on itself, and taking with it its beautiful
landscape, delicate ecosystem, indigenous peoples, and endangered species.
King Albert I of Belgium established Virunga as Africa’s first national park in
1925. He is credited with creating the national park as a site for the protection of the
now extremely rare and critically endangered Mountain Gorillas. Congo gained its
independence from Belgium in 1960 and the park quickly found itself in a turbulent
place, unfortunately not too dissimilar from the situation it faces today. However
nine years later, then President Mobutu, took personal interest into the site,
officially giving it the name Virunga and reviving its economy. The park experience
tourism and new income like it never had before and in 1979 the park would be
officially designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
The following 20 years would be a trying time for both the park and the
Congo Nation. The Mobutu regime was financed mostly by Belgium and the United
States in an effort to combat the communist movement in Central Africa, however
his time as president (though it was more of a dictatorship than a democracy) was
rife with crimes against humanity, political repression, corruption, and would
eventually be the catalyst for the first Congolese War.
The deterioration of the nation had equally destructive effects on the park,
beginning with the Rwandan genocide which made its way over into the Northern
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Kivu region of eastern Congo, where the Hutu Militant forces would set up there
base. The two Congolese wars, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Kivu conflict all but
destroyed the economic value to the park; destruction that would stifle the
maintenance and growth of the park until the economy would rejuvenate in 2008.
In 2007 the Democratic Republic of Congo, in a move to spike their economy,
would sign a production sharing agreement, which would allow for SOCO Oil,
Dominion Petroleum and to the DRC’s state run Oil Company to pursue oil
exploration in an area known as Block V. According to ShareAction Block V is a
7,500 square kilometer area in the eastern DRC. Block V also takes up a good
proportion of Virunga national park, as well as Lake Edward, known for providing
fishery and food to many in the North Kivu area. SOCO would end up buying
Dominion Petroleum’s shares in the Congo, and with no fight from the DRC ran Oil
Company, would have sole rights to the production and exploration of oil. SOCO
started evaluations on the Block V site back in 2010 by putting surveyors on the
ground, doing aerial sweeps of the park, and initiating seismic surveys by geologists.
There are quite a few things at stake here that need to be identified to
understand what is happening in the eastern DRC. Virunga National Park, only
slightly smaller than the U.S.A.’s Yellowstone natonal park, is the largest of all the
stakeholders. Virunga contains incredible biodiversity. and it is home to Africa’s
largest surviving populations of mountain gorillas and hippos. According to an
Environment360 report, it is believed to have more biological diversity than any
other protected area in Africa including it’s wetlands, towering mountains, savanna
grassland, volcanoes, and lakes, most notable Lake Edward. The vast majority of
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Americans would never allow for drilling or mining to take place in Yellowstone or
one of our other great national treasures, yet Virugna National Park is in grave
danger from threats just like this.
The extremely rare, and almost extinct Mountain Gorilla, as well as its
cohabitant the Hippo, are also a large factor that we need to consider in this issue.
This area of the Congo, unfortunately along with Virunga National Park, has a huge
issue with poaching. A population of around 29,000 Hippos in the area around 1970
has dropped tremendously and is now believed to sit somewhere in the vicinity of
1200. Virunga is also home to Africa’s largest living population of Mountain Gorilla’s,
containing about a quarter of the remaining 880 documented Gorillas living in the
wild today. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature classifies the
Mountain Gorilla as Critically Endangered on their conservation status, putting them
one step away from being all but extinct in the wild.
The last of the stakeholders that I want to emphasize the most are the
approximately 1 million people who live in or around the Virunga National Park
area, who are now at risk of displacement or potentially worse. These people mostly
live in small fishing communities or belong to militant groups like the M23’s. These
small fishing communities live off the abundance of the land, most notably off of
Lake Edward, which is in danger of being mined, as SOCO believes it sits on top of a
large deposit of oil. Any type of major spill in the lake could not only have large
ecological affects on it, but could also lead to even more poverty and possible
starvation to those who live in proximity, or rely on it as a food source.
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According to those in the area SOCO has done everything it can from lying,
bribing, and extortion to get their agenda pushed and the people indigenous to the
area are concerned and scared for what may lie ahead. The IUCN posted interviews
with the locals to their YouTube channel short videos entitled ‘Oil Exploration in
Virunga National Park: The Promise of Oil’; in which they stated, “…They told us, we
will build a house for each of you on the site of your choice. But this was pure lies.
From there we concluded that these guys only came to destroy our livelihoods.
Knowing all along they wouldn’t give us anything, in short they didn’t honor any of
the agreements we signed with them”.
Another interview with one of the local fishermans starts after the previous
clip, he states, “Speaking about our life here, I must say we depend on fishing,
Fishing is our source of income. We have heard about the oil projects several times,
about people coming to exploit it… But we think that ever since we started talking
with them, they have only been kidding. We do not trust them… But we think the
reality we face is that once they start exploiting the lake, we will no longer be able to
work”. The fisherman compares the circumstances to those who experienced a
similar takeover in Moanda, Gabon, and how they are now very poor and the
population is suffering.
Virunga is NOT Viable! Virunga is not a viable source of oil for anyone. The
Congo to many of us can seem like another world, even another world away but the
fight here plays on a global level. This is one of the most protected parks in the
world and if an oil conglomerate, in this case SOCO, gets its way then the protection
of parks and their inhabitants around the world are all in potential danger. Lines
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need to be drawn to prevent the exploitation of this land by wealthy owners, and
financially persuaded bureaucrats.
At this moment in time SOCO sits on their contract, and patiently waits for
the international buzz regarding this issue to lull. What we can do is make sure that
SOCO and any other potential oil companies interested in mining for oil know that
current and future generations intend on maintaining the integrity of national parks,
wildlife preserves, and world heritage sites around the world.
We need to spread awareness of the issues and nothing can work better than
involving social media, #VirungaIsNotViable. This will be the movement that I, and
anyone else concerned about the potential of oil exploitation will stand behind; we
will use this hashtag across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and any other
mediums that can help get our point across. The World Wildlife Fund, UNESCO,
Governments around the world, as well as other conservation NGO’s will stand
behind our movement and support us.
A grassroots movement will also be started to gain enough members to sign a
petition for the U.S. government to make sure they stand up for or stand with the
U.N. to make sure that no resources are drilled from Virunga National Park. This
issue is no endemic to the Congo, as soon as the first national park in the Congo falls,
the rest will fall like Domino’s, with oil companies able to use litigation from their
rights won over Virunga to make claims to any other uniquely bio-diverse areas
around the world.
Stand with us by using #VirungaIsNotViable, and ensure the prosperity of the
natural resources and beauty are would has to offer are maintained.
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