SAVE VIRUNGA
Stop Oil Exploration in Africa's Oldest National Park
Despite the global plunge in oil prices, a major pipeline that would carry oil 900 miles across East Africa is moving ahead. International experts warn that the $20 billion project will displace thousands of small farmers and put key wildlife habitat and coastal waters at risk. BY FRED PEARCE • MAY 21, 2020 Imagine a tropical version of… Read More
More than 265 civil society groups around the world are calling upon the Chinese government to ensure that COVID-19 related financial relief for struggling Belt and Road projects flows only to high quality overseas investments that meet stringent criteria aimed at protecting people and safeguarding the environment. The organizations urged China to avoid bailing out projects… Read More
More than 20 local civil society groups in North Kivu have expressed their concerns with regard to the surge of insecurity in and around Virunga National Park. It is with deep consternation that we learned today, Thursday, 24 April 2020, of the attack on a convoy of the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature… Read More
“It is with great sadness that Virunga National Park confirms that today, 24 April 2020, there has been a significant attack by armed groups near Rumangabo …” Last Friday, 4 civilians & 13 colleagues and friends were slaughtered. Khadafi, Lumumba, Djamali, Junior, Jean-Louis, Joseph, Ruphin, Jeannot, Augustin, Jacques, Héritier, Moise and Justin. They were in their… Read More
With the current outbreak of the coronavirus disease, COVID-19, global attention has been drawn to the significant health risks posed by eating wild animals. As the number of infections from the coronavirus exploded in China, the outbreak was linked to a live animal and seafood market in Jianghan District, Wuhan. The specific animal source and… Read More
As the coronavirus infects more people around the world, conservationists are warning of the risk to another vulnerable species: Africa’s mountain gorilla By RODNEY MUHUMUZA Associated Press In this photo taken Dec. 11 2012, a park ranger wearing a mask walks past a mountain gorilla in the Virunga National Park in eastern Congo. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)… Read More
It was around 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday 03/03/2020 that a ranger was killed in an attack on the park a few steps from Nyamilima by the armed militia Mai Mai. An ambush was set up against the rangers who returned to their base while they were deployed to secure the construction of the electric fence… Read More
The birth of a small mountain gorilla again on January 8, the very first for 2020, was celebrated as a big event. This is proof of the restoration of ecosystems and the sustainable development of natural resources in this protected area declared “world heritage of humanity” and which covers 8,000 km². Virunga National Park (ViNP)… Read More
Standard Bank, Africa’s biggest lender, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) of Japan are reportedly about to finance a 1,443-kilometer crude oil pipeline through Uganda and Tanzania. If built, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) would be the longest heated crude oil pipeline in the world and is expected to cause large-scale displacement of… Read More
The continuing importance of parks While community forests and conservation areas are a good way to build trust and a sense of stewardship and responsibility in the local community, national parks are still an essential conservation tool. “I think you still need parks, because you still need to have areas where biodiversity is totally protected,”… Read More
“Because we do not love the earth and the things of the earth but merely utilize them…we have lost touch with life…We have lost the sense of tenderness, that sensitivity, that response to things of beauty; and it is only in the renewal of that sensitivity that we can have understanding of what is true… Read More
By Willy Mutunga, The writer is Chief Justice of the Republic of Kenya and President of the Supreme Court Nelson Mandela belonged to that exceptionally rare and endangered breed of the African elite that broke vernacular barriers to build a Rainbow Nation. With considerable effort and remarkable foresight, he harnessed diversity into a common nationhood.… Read More
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