News that the Virungu National Park in the DR Congo, one of the last African refuges left for the continent's mountain gorillas, will not be allowed by the government of President Kabilla, to be preyed upon by greedy foreign oil companies (desirous of exploring for oil in it, incredibly!), is one of the most refreshing news reports to come out of Africa for a long time.
The idea that the UK oil company, Soco International, wanted to be permitted to search for oil in the Virunga National Park in the first place, particularly at a time when global warming is impacting so negatively on the continent's natural environment, is simply outrageous.
Would Soco International dare ask the British authorities to allow it to explore for oil, in an area of the UK declared a national park, and widely acknowledged as one of the most bio-diverse places on the surface of the planet Earth (and on the UN's World Heritage sites list to boot, too!), I ask?
It is time that corporate entities that have a global footprint, adopted the environmental regulations of their countries' of domicile, as a global standard, which regulates their operations worldwide - if the standards of the country their subsidiaries operate in, are not as stringent as those of their country of domicile.
It is unethical to carry out operations that impact negatively on the natural environment in poor developing nations, if they would never do same in their own home countries, in similar circumstances. Does humankind not inhabit one biosphere, and is it not time that the corporate world took cognisance of that delicate fact of life - and became environmentally responsible, in every part of the planet Earth, where they pursue profits with their usual single-mindedness of purpose?
What will Soco International's chief executive, Roger Cagle, tell his grand children someday, when he retires: that he went to Africa, made a vast fortune - and in the process destroyed delicate ecosystems and biodiversity hotspots around the continent, at a time of global climate change: because it was all in a day's work for him, in the wealth-creation process that built their family fortune? Where is conscience and morality in this attempted gang-rape of Mother Nature, by Soco International?
It was brave of a number of Congolese politicians to put the preservation of the Virungo National Park ahead of the usual short-term cop-out excuses, which are are usually trotted out by spineless politicians on such occasions - job creation and attracting foreign investment. They are the usual good intentions that the road to the environmental equivalent of hell, is paved with - and are deployed across the African continent daily by not-so-intelligent politicians without a scintilla of vision in them, to aid super-ruthless investors driven by short-termism and unfathomable greed: in a blatant attempt to justify the unjustifiable.
All those DR Congo politicians in the government of President Joseph Kabilla, who said no to Soco International, are true African heroes - and will be so regarded by future generations of pan-Africanists and Congolese citizens (especially the 500,000 local families dependent on fish from Lake Edward!), till the very end of time. Conservationists from around the entire world too, salute them - and say bravo to each one of them!
Tel (powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
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