Please help save the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from oil exploration. The National park is a UNESCO world heritage site and one of the most biologically diverse areas on the planet. Among the parks many species of endangered wildlife under threat are critically endangered mountain gorillas.
Please help to prevent this ecological catastrophe by signing a petition to Augustin Matata Ponyo, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Petition:
Don’t Open a UNESCO World Heritage Site to Oil Exploration!
“Virunga National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site located in the Congo, is the oldest and most biologically diverse park in Africa. Over the past 20 years, however, armed conflict and poaching have endangered the site’s ecosystem. Instead of taking action to protect the area’s wildlife, prime minister Augustin Matata Ponyo expressed wishes to explore for oil in the park.”
Please read more and sign the petition:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/666/238/779/dont-open-a-unesco-world-heritage-site-to-oil-exploration/?z00m=22816434
More information
This is the offical web site of the Virunga National Park.
https://virunga.org/ – Here you will find more information and ways to help.
Be sure to check out the current park projects by clicking the following link:
https://virunga.org/projects/
It is shocking that in the last 20 years, over 150 rangers have been killed protecting Virunga National Park and it’s inhabitants from such threats as poachers who among other atrocities have slaughtered Virunga’s elephants, reducing numbers from 3000 to approximately as few as 400.
Sadly the entire world’s myriad species seem under threat in one way or another by just one animal, and that animal is of course man who for the sake of unbridled greed is prepared to do just about anything and everything to accrue wealth even at the expense of his fellow human beings, other animals and the environment.
We need to remember though that these people are in the minority, most people are either indifferent, ignorant or actually care and many actively work to protect wildlife and the environment from greed and exploitation.
Here is a heart warming story about one such caring person :
My other children, the orphan gorillas of Virunga
“Park ranger Andre Bauma has been taking care of orphaned mountain gorillas at Virunga, Africa’s oldest national park, for the past seven years, and he says he loves them as if they were his own children.
One gorilla, Ndakasi, is particularly close to Bauma. She sees him as her mother, and despite being a man – and a human to boot – he has taken on that role. “We shared the same bed, I played with her, I fed her… I can say I am her mother,” he says.”
Please read more:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29924301
Please sign the petition if you have not already done so.
The exploration and extraction of oil is the last thing that this Park needs.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/666/238/779/dont-open-a-unesco-world-heritage-site-to-oil-exploration/?z00m=22816434
Related links
African Wildlife Foundation
http://www.awf.org/wildlife-conservation/mountain-gorilla
Mountain Gorilla
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/mountain-gorilla/
Rantings From a Virtual Soapbox 