Oil drilling challenge in Murchison Falls National Park

Catering for disaster

Andrew Byaruhanga, the executive director of Resource Rights Africa, a non-profit that advances extractives and environmental rights in Africa told The Independent on March 12 that as a company, Total should remain true to their commitments. He says Total should know that the Murchison Falls National Park is too sensitive.

“We don’t think Total saying they are only using 1% of the conservancy; their activities will therefore have minimal impact. Studies and experiences elsewhere do not give us confidence for us to relax our demands that Total walks the talk.”

Byaruhanga insists that Total and the government need to agree on a contingency fund to cater for any emergency to pay for activities like clean-ups in case of disasters like oil spills.

But Dr. Peter Apell, the executive director of the Jane Goodall Institute puts things into perspective and gives credit to Total for the initiative the company has taken to reach out to the Northern Albertine Rift Conservation Group, a consortium of seven local and international conservation agencies that have been doing conservation work in the Albertine region for decades.  Dr. Apell’s Jane Goodall Institute has for decades been working to improve the relationship between chimpanzees and frontline communities in the Albertine region.

He told The Independent that Total has been working with their consortium for years on workable solutions for both the biodiversity and frontline communities. He said they will do the same for the next 10-15 years.

“We are working on a baseline for the biodiversity and their habitats. It is this baseline that we shall use to periodically assess the impact of Total’s activities in the region.”

Going forward, Dr. Apell told The Independent that Total agreed that the consortium does independent monitoring of the impacts on biodiversity so they are able to flag potential threats and impacts.

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