Abstract
This article aims at addressing the impasse created by the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) when it granted to Soco, an English multinational company, the permit to exploit oil and start drilling inside the Virunga National Park in the province of North Kivu, Ituri area, which is protected by UNESCO as a Heritage of Humanity and recognized worldwide as the sanctuary of the mountain gorillas, okapis and several other endangered animals or animal species. The article is inspired in the international mobilization promoted by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) such as the Human Rights Watch (HRW), Global Witness, World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) and by other national and international human and animal rights movements, as well as by Ituri’s civil society. What is the future of Virunga Park in face of the economic development from oil exploitation to benefit poor riparian populations praised by the Central Government and the sustainable development based on the preservation and conservation of the Park recommended by the non-governmental organizations and the movements listed above? Considering the arguments of the Government in favor of economic development to fight the poverty and misery of the riparian populations, in one hand, and the UN’s opposite positioning through UNESCO, NGOs and the civil society, on the other hand, the dialectic method is going to be used by means of a descriptive research founded on a bibliographic survey.
Highlights
In a time when the environment claims for conservation and protection through international conventions, acts and treaties, from Stockholm (1972), passing by Tbilisi (1977), Copenhagen (1995), Rio 92 and Rio + 20, to the COP 21 (UN Climate Change Conference) in Paris, one cannot deny the relevance of this article that aims at analyzing the economic and social interests involved in the exploitation of oil at the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), classified and protected by UNESCO as Heritage of the Humanity
There is a real war of communications between, on one side, the Central Government that granted the permits to the English company Soco for it to start the feasibility studies to ease the exploitation of oil in the name of the economic development of the area and, especially, of the poor populations and, on the other side, UNESCO, Organizações Não Governamentais (ONGs) and environmentalist movements that mobilized the international community, the North American authorities and the British Parliament to put pressure on the multinational company, Soco, so that it abandoned the project
That problem has generated conflicts of interests among the parties, taking the international community, by means of the UN, to manifest against the exploitation of oil, infuriating the Government in the name of the state sovereignty before external injunctions. Is it possible to exploit oil in the Virunga Park, Heritage of Humanity to insure economic development in the area and, as a consequence, fight the extreme poverty of the populations, or natural resources should be preserved and conserved, including the oil in the Park, respecting the protection set by UNESCO over the ecologic reserve to the detriment of the miserable people? Would it be possible to conciliate the economic development encompassed by oil exploitation to the sustainable development of the oldest African reserve, with its immeasurable natural resources and its beautiful fauna and flora?
Summary
In a time when the environment claims for conservation and protection through international conventions, acts and treaties, from Stockholm (1972), passing by Tbilisi (1977), Copenhagen (1995), Rio 92 and Rio + 20, to the COP 21 (UN Climate Change Conference) in Paris, one cannot deny the relevance of this article that aims at analyzing the economic and social interests involved in the exploitation of oil at the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), classified and protected by UNESCO as Heritage of the Humanity. That problem has generated conflicts of interests among the parties, taking the international community, by means of the UN, to manifest against the exploitation of oil, infuriating the Government in the name of the state sovereignty before external injunctions Is it possible to exploit oil in the Virunga Park, Heritage of Humanity to insure economic development in the area and, as a consequence, fight the extreme poverty of the populations, or natural resources should be preserved and conserved, including the oil in the Park, respecting the protection set by UNESCO over the ecologic reserve to the detriment of the miserable people? Development between the pros and cons of oil exploitation in the Virunga Park, the dialectic method is used so that the light of sapience shines over the clashes and debates to protect and conserve the environment and the social wellness of the populations affected by the predatory activities performed by the multinational companies on the African territory with its countless natural resources
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