The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is opening up crucial gorilla habitats and pristine forests to bids for oil and gas drilling, with plans to carve up more than half of the country into blocks for fossil fuel exploration. These blocks, covering 124 million hectares, include some of the most vulnerable and biodiverse areas in the world, such as the central Congo peatlands, which store approximately 30 billion metric tonnes of carbon and are home to endangered species like lowland gorillas and bonobos.
Despite the DRC’s commitments to biodiversity and climate protection, the government launched a licensing round for 52 oil blocks this year, in addition to the three previously awarded. This move contradicts the country’s environmental commitments, as 64% of the open blocks are located in intact tropical forests, according to a report by Earth Insight.
The overlap of the newly designated oil blocks with protected areas, including the flagship Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor conservation project, remains a contentious area of focus. Furthermore, the Cuvette Centrale, home to rare wildlife and the world’s largest tropical peatland complex, is also included in the newly designated oil blocks, posing a significant threat to biodiversity and the local indigenous population.
International efforts aimed at funding forest protection have seen limited success. The most significant of these, a $500 million forest protection deal signed on behalf of the Central African Forest Initiative at COP26, has faced delays, with only $150m transferred to the DRC so far. This discrepancy has led to concerns that the lack of international funding to support forest preservation could lead countries like the DRC to pursue oil and gas deals further.
The proposed auction has raised concerns among indigenous rights groups, conservationists, and the international community, who argue that the exploitation of oil and gas in the DRC’s forests would have devastating impacts on biodiversity, community rights, and the global climate change mitigation efforts. The report by Earth Insight, in collaboration with local and international organizations, calls on the DRC government and its global partners to cancel the oil tender and invest in sustainable development models that respect indigenous and community rights.
As the international community and environmental organizations pressure the DRC government to reconsider its plans, the fate of one of the world’s most biodiverse regions hangs in the balance.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/29/gorilla-habitats-pristine-forest-at-risk-as-drc-opens-half-of-country-to-oil-and-gas-drilling-bids-aoe
