OECD offers to mediate on oil exploration in Congo gorilla park
Reuters
February 15, 2014, 2:08 am
DAKAR (Reuters) - The OECD has offered to mediate between British oil
company Soco International and conservation group WWF to determine
whether exploration in the last refuge of Congo's mountain gorillas
violates the organisation's ethical standards.
WWF presented a complaint in October saying that Soco's oil activity
in Virunga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site, violated the
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD)
business guidelines.
Soco, which denied the allegations, and the government of Democratic
Republic of Congo, one of the world's poorest nations, want to explore
the park's potential to generate oil revenue.
An initial report by the OECD's British office, released on Friday,
said the WWF complaint raised important questions about how Soco
should meet its obligations to contribute to sustainable development
in Congo and that the issue merited further examination via mediation.
The OECD said that if the two parties would not agree to mediation, it
would conduct its own investigation to determine whether Soco was in
breach of the guidelines. The OECD has no power to enforce its
standards.
Soco said it respected the OECD complaints process and hoped mediation
would take place "outside the media spotlight".
"The company looks forward to contributing to a further examination of
how sustainable development can be achieved, whilst addressing the
views of the international community together with the DRC's
legitimate right to manage and protect its own energy resources," it
said in a statement.
The WWF said the decision had set a precedent for using the OECD
guidelines as a mechanism for safeguarding the environment.
The OECD report found no specific human rights impact from Soco's
activities and rejected complaints that there had been a lack of
engagement with stakeholders, such as local residents, UNESCO and
non-profit organisations.
It also dismissed WWF's complaint that a clause in Soco's contract,
which exempts it from any tax or environmental legislation after the
contract was signed, was a risk to environmental and human rights.
The OECD acknowledged that SOCO had committed to environmental and
social standards above the requirements of existing laws, including
the OECD guidelines themselves.
It was concerned, however, that no environmental impact assessment of
activities in the park had been published. In response, Soco said the
Congolese government had now agreed to make the report public.
Soco said that it had so far conducted a month-long seismic survey
within the park, and after that initial testing, "no drilling has been
planned or is even warranted", it said.
(Reporting by Daniel Flynn; editing by Jane Baird)
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/business/world/a/21477556/
--
SIBOMANA Jean Bosco
Google+: https://plus.google.com/110493390983174363421/posts
YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9B4024D0AE764F3D
http://www.youtube.com/user/sibomanaxyz999
***Online Time:15H30-20H30, heure de Montréal.***Fuseau horaire
domestique: heure normale de la côte Est des Etats-Unis et Canada
(GMT-05:00)***
| Reply via web post | Reply to sender | Reply to group | Start a New Topic | Messages in this topic (1) |
.To post a message: RwandaLibre@yahoogroups.com; .To join: RwandaLibre-subscribe@yahoogroups.com; .To unsubscribe from this group,send an email to:
RwandaLibre-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
_____________________________________________________
More news: http://amakurunamateka.blogspot.co.uk/; http://ikangurambaga.blogspot.co.uk/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment