[WWF] Take Action Now!

Urgent: help stop oil exploration inside one of Africa’s most iconic national parks

TO: Mr. Andrew Cochran, Chief Executive Officer, Dominion Petroleum, and Mr. Ed Story, President and Chief Executive Officer, SOCO International

We, the undersigned, call on you to ensure that Dominion/SOCO abandons all plans to conduct exploration for oil inside the world famous Virunga National Park, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC.)

Virunga National Park is Africa’s oldest national park, its first World Heritage Site, and is renowned worldwide for its incredible yet fragile diversity of wildlife. The park is also home to almost a quarter of the Earth’s last remaining mountain gorillas, a charismatic large ape species and one of human kinds closest living relatives.

Opening up Virunga National Park for oil exploration and development could jeopardise decades of successful and costly conservation effort aimed at safeguarding the park’s unique biodiversity, and threaten tourism and fishing incomes for the area’s local people.

We strongly hope that you will not want Dominion/SOCO to be associated with impacting such a globally important and high profile National Park.

Urgent: help stop oil exploration inside one of Africa’s most iconic national parks