Help Stop Oil Exploration In Virunga National Park

Starting last month, the film Virunga starring UK Actress Anna Friel is being shown as ODEON theatres throughout the UK. The film is just three minutes long but takes the viewer on a dramatic journey across snow capped mountains and lush tropical rainforest, highlighting an astonishing diversity of wildlife which includes elephants and gorillas.

The film was directed by Stephen Poliakoff and makes use of cutting edge techniques that captures some of eastern Congo’s most dramatic landscapes. You will be amazed by the beauty of the landscape and learn how the global demand for hydrocarbons is putting this wonderful region at risk.

Ms. Friel and her eight year old daughter visited Virunga to find out how oil exploration could end up impacting the environment, the locals and its species. At particular risk is the endangered mountain gorilla. Ms Friel also saw how the locals make their livelihood from nature through eco tourism and fishing.

Virunga National Park is the oldest park of its kind in Africa and serves as home to as much as 25 per cent of the remaining population of mountain gorillas and 200 other species that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Hundreds and thousands of people depend on the park for both food and water and the prospect of oil drilling and the potential for spills could have a devastating effect.

“I was incredibly fortunate to experience the beauty of Uganda’s parks with my daughter Gracie, and I now feel even more of a responsibility to help preserve this area for future generations. If we fail to act now, the heritage of this ‘protected’ area and these extraordinary creatures could no longer exist by the time Gracie is my age. If oil exploration can threaten a place as beautiful and meaningful as Virunga, where’s next?” Ms. Freil said.

The WWF thinks that oil exploration would produce an unacceptable risk for the park’s environment and its communities. There is plenty of evidence the park could develop economically without the need for oil extraction.

Sign Up to protect Virunga National Park from oil exploration.