The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is opening crucial gorilla habitats and pristine forests to bids for oil and gas drilling, with plans to carve up more than half the country into fossil fuel blocks.
The blocks opened for auction cover 124m hectares (306m acres) of land and inland waters described by experts as the “world’s worst place to prospect for oil” because they hold vast amounts of carbon and are home to some of the planet’s most precious wildlife habitats, including endangered lowland gorillas and bonobo.
This year the government has launched a licensing round for 52 oil blocks; these are in addition to three blocks previously awarded. Of the total area, 64% is intact tropical forest, according to the spatial mapping and analysis in a new report by Earth Insight. This expansion of oil and gas development is at odds with DRC’s commitments to protect biodiversity and climate protection, experts warn.
In July 2022, the DRC government launched tenders for 30 oil and gas blocks, but this was later cancelled, with the government citing late submissions and a lack of competition. “The world’s worst place to prospect for oil is up for auction, again,” said Prof Simon Lewis from University College London, who led the team that first mapped the central Congo peatlands. “No credible company would bid for oil in the DRC’s forests and peatlands, as there is probably not enough oil to be commercially viable, and it will be expensive oil in financial, social and environmental costs.”
A Greenpeace scientist conducting research in the Congo’s vast peatlands. Photograph: Daniel Beltrá/Greenpeace
Earlier this year the government announced the flagship Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor conservation initiative, but now 72% of that area overlaps with planned oil blocks, according to the report, written in collaboration with DRC-based group Notre Terre Sans Pétrole [Our Land Without Oil], Corap, and Rainforest Foundation UK.
The Cuvette Centrale – which is the world’s largest tropical peatland complex – is included in the newly designated oil blocks. This vast swampy area is the size of Nepal and home to rare wildlife including forest elephants, lowland gorillas, chimpanzees and endemic birds. It stores approximately 30bn metric tonnes of carbon in peat.
The overlap of fossil fuel licensing blocks and protected areas in the DRC
In recent years there have been various international efforts to secure funding to protect DRC’s forests.
The most significant tranche of money was a $500m (£417.6m) forest protection deal signed on behalf of the Central African Forest Initiative (Cafi) at Cop26. The 10-year agreement – running from 2021 to 2031 – aimed to cut deforestation and promote the regeneration of 8m hectares of degraded land and forests.
So far, just $150m has been transferred to the DRC, well behind the nearly $400m that should have been delivered by now according to the terms of the agreement. Discussions are ongoing about how to increase the speed of money being released. A source said the lack of international funding to make it more profitable to keep forests standing than felled is making countries such as DRC more likely to look for oil and gas deals. They described it as a “collective failure”.
In addition to conservation impacts, an estimated 39 million people live within the area being sold off for oil, including many Indigenous peoples and forest-based communities who depend on healthy forests and rivers for survival.
Territory key to Indigenous peoples such as the Mbuti pygmies, pictured, and other forest-based communities may be affected by the proposed auction. Photograph: De Agostini/Getty Images
“Imagine: 39 million Congolese people … and 64% of our forests could be directly affected by the awarding of these oil blocks,” said Pascal Mirindi, campaign coordinator for Notre Terre Sans Pétrole. “And all this while the government is promoting the Kivu-Kinshasa ecological corridor. Where is the logic? Where is the coherence? We are reminding our leaders that the Congolese people are the primary sovereign. We will not remain silent while certain people organise themselves to sell off our future.”
The report calls on the DRC government and international partners to cancel the 2025 oil tender and invest in development models that respect Indigenous and community rights. “Oil and gas development in these fragile ecosystems would have devastating impacts on biodiversity, communities, land rights and the global fight against climate change,” said Anna Bebbington, a research manager at Earth Insight.
The DRC government did not respond to request for comment.
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