Why are Protected Areas so Unprotected? Making a Deal for Virunga?

Every day we hear that the integrity of a protected area is being challenged by the expansion of industrial activities such as oil, gas and mining exploration. Last week it was the turn of Manu National Park in Peru’s Amazon one of the most biodiverse places on Earth and home of several indigenous peoples –… Read More

Campaigners in Virunga urge UK’s SFO to take allegations against SOCO seriously

Local campaigners in Virunga urge UK’s Serious Fraude Office to  take the allegations against the company SOCO seriously in order to protect local communities and save Virunga National Park. Local campaigners in Virunga, some of whom have suffered intimidation and scare tactics in the course of their activism protecting the national park, wrote to Clifford Chance to… Read More

How to Change the World?

Stop Fossil Fuels, Fight for Justice, Save Virunga, Yasuni and all these other Places and Peoples You and I must take daily actions that make large-scale changes possible. Sometimes you meet someone, see a place for the first time, read a book, or watch a movie and you are reminded in one glimpse, one sentence,… Read More

Celebrating #PeaceDay: Virunga Partnership for Sustainable Peace

The exploitation of natural resources has proven to be a major driver of conflict in DRC and the Great Lakes region. Oil exploration in Virunga has followed the same track with a poor local engagement, the total exclusion of communities from decision making and the criminalization of local protests against oil.  In light of the… Read More

From Doctrine to Action: Time to Save Virunga and all These Other Irreplaceable Places

Since the publication of Pope Francis’ ” Laudato Si’ ” many have given their views on the Pope’s Encyclical letter on the care of the ‘common house’. Some call it the most “astonishing and perhaps the most ambitious papal document of the past 100 years, since it is addressed not just to Catholics, or Christians, but to… Read More

Oil Exploration in Virunga: a Fisherman’s tale, in which team are you?

Oil exploitation in Virunga’s block V is similar to the final of an important soccer game between the government with its petroleum allies, and the local communities that depend on inexhaustible natural resources and their supporters, civil society organizations working on the protection of the environment. Both teams have been trained to use the legal instruments that are at… Read More

A Message to Shareholders Willing to Finance Oil Exploitation in Virunga – DRC

MSF-Photo: Colin Delfosse – A resident of Rubaya camp in Masisi, North Kivu, looks out over the makeshift tents.  When investing in Oil be aware that you are also contributing: 1. To finance massacres, conflicts and inter-ethnic wars, low intensity warfare originated in the oil exploitation; 2. To expel populations from oil areas (from families… Read More

Diamonds and Oil are not Forever: African Knowledge is the Answer

A must read article about what it entails to create a transformative and sustainable prosperity in Africa, and to keep places like Virunga forever. African governments need to switch from a predominant extractive economic model to a people and human knowledge orientated development pathway. Digging for oil and minerals not only shatters pristine environments and… Read More

1.000 Reasons Save Virunga: Pope Francis Steward of Nature/People

“Our earth needs constant concern and attention.  Each of us has a personal responsibility to care for creation, this precious gift which God has entrusted to us.  This means, on the one hand, that nature is at our disposal, to enjoy and use properly.  Yet it also means that we are not its masters.  Stewards,… Read More

DEC 2014: DiCaprio brings Local Voice for Virunga’s Survival to Worldwide Audience – Netflix

The actor turned environmentalist adds of ‘Virunga’: “You have grassroots people on the ground risking their lives for these last remaining places that are so vital” Leonardo DiCaprio has been an avid environmentalist for over 15 years, and started his own foundation in 1998 to preserve endangered species and their habitats, among other goals. This… Read More

Women, Natural Resources and Peacebuilding in Virunga

In “Women Empowerment, Fisheries and Sustainable Development in Virunga”  we have seen how  important Lake Edward is for the empowerment and emancipation of women in the Great Lakes region. In this article based on the excerpt of the UN report on  Women and Natural Resources: Unlocking the PeaceBuilding Potential we focus on the relationship between women and natural resources in… Read More