SAVE VIRUNGA
Stop Oil Exploration in Africa's Oldest National Park
The problem, in a nutshell, is that for fifty years, foreign oil companies have conducted some of the world’s most sophisticated exploration and production operations, using millions of dollars’ worth of imported ultramodern equipment, against a backdrop of Stone Age squalor. They have extracted hundreds of millions of barrels of oil, which have sold on… Read More
The Great Lakes that link Uganda and the DRC are home to some of the most diverse wildlife on the planet, as well as diverse cultures and people. They also contain oil and gas deposits that many companies want to exploit. Local communities are concerned about how the oil industry will affect their lives. After… Read More
“We are capable of bold, redemptive, and generous action, and such action is required of us now.” Excerpt from On E.B. White’s Urgent Calls for Environmental Justice Megan Mayhew Bergman Revisits The New Yorker’s “Anonymous” Editorials …. We believe we are superior to other tribes and nations, but also other life forms. Human exceptionalism is… Read More
For the past years, we have fought for the protection of Virunga National Park and against oil exploration and exploitation in Africa’s oldest National park. We engaged in this battle not only because we wanted to safeguard one of its most iconic species, the mountain gorilla, but also because we believe that local communities have… Read More
Blocks off Africa’s coast have already been snapped up by exploration companies but what of East Africa’s enormous great lakes? With exploration well underway in Lake Albert and plans laid down for Lake Malawi, Philip Kleinfeld looks at the social, political and environmental challenges. Lake Albert Uganda Blocks off Africa’s coast have already been snapped… Read More
1980 The term “greenwashing” was coined in the 1980s to describe outrageous corporate environmental claims. In the mid-1980s, oil company Chevron commissioned a series of expensive television and print ads to convince the public of its environmental bonafides. Titled People Do, the campaign showed Chevron employees protecting bears, butterflies, sea turtles and all manner of… Read More
Colonialism is often misunderstood or narrowly defined. Some mistakenly confine it to either a geographic area or an era. Others, convinced that colonialism is outmoded and passé, view it a system no longer operative in Africa and generally in the world. Still others narrow it to a system imposed by and serving only inhabitants and… Read More
“One of the major tenets behind the creation of a national park, or other protected area, is that it will not fade, but remain in essence beyond the pressures of human society, enjoyed by current generations while being preserved for future ones. The protected area is a gift, in a way, handed from one wise… Read More
Virunga National Park, the first national park ever established in Africa, sits on the eastern edge of the Democratic Republic of Congo and is home to one third of the world’s mountain gorillas, more than 700 bird species, and more than 200 mammal species. It also sits in the backyard of thousands of smallholder farmers,… Read More
Oil exploration forms a serious threat to the oldest and most precious nature reserve in Africa, Virunga, and to the communities that depend upon its resources. Local communities, local conservationists and human rights organizations oppose the search for oil and defend the right of these local populations to a healthy environment and sustainable development option.… Read More
This is the oldest National Park in Afrika! Since 1925 the Virunga Park is protected. During our visit we hiked twice to the Gorilla’s and to the top of the Nyiragongo Volcano to see the world’s largest lava lake! Source: CongoSafari
What is happening to Murchison Falls Protected Area, Uganda’s largest, oldest, and most visited protected area? And how can Virunga, Queen Elizabeth and so many other endangered protected and high biodiversity areas survive oil and infrastructure expansion in the region? Like if it was note enough to have oil drilling in this protected area now… Read More
