Environmentalists have stepped up their campaign to save the remaining mountain gorillas in the World Heritage-listed Virunga National Park after oil exploration surveys began.

Virunga, situated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo but straddling the border with Uganda and Rwanda, is home to the few hundred mountain gorillas that remain in the country.

British company Soco has begun controversial aerial surveys aimed at finding oil in Africa’s Unesco listed and oldest national park, despite fears that drilling for oil could devastate one of the few remaining sanctuaries for mountain gorillas, threatening the popular and lucrative tourist trade as well.

Despite claims from the company that it will respect Virunga’s heritage and limit any damage caused by oil exploration, any decision to go ahead will have to be weighed against the possible benefits of oil against the millions of tourist dollars that mountain gorillas bring in.

The World Wildlife Fund, which has been spearheading the campaign to stop oil exploration activities, said it “would bring a new and unacceptable level of risk for Virunga’s environment and communities.”

A WWF report said that oil development “could have serious negative implications for wildlife, habitats and people.”

READ: Alarm bells sound over Virunga oil project

The report points out that the area Soco is looking to explore is around 30 kilometres away from the mountain gorillas’ habitat and that “development anywhere in the park could negatively affect their safety.”

Moreover, WWF said that Virunga National Park could earn DR Congo $400 million a year from tourism, hydropower and carbon credits.

Earlier this year, Unesco called for the cancellation of all Virunga oil permits and appealed to two concession holders, Total and Soco International, not to undertake exploration activities in World Heritage Sites.

Total has since agreed to respect Virunga park’s current boundaries, leaving Soco as the only oil and gas company planning to explore inside the park’s 7,800sq km. It claims its area of interest is not near the gorillas’ habitat.

Virunga is already in a fragile state, thanks to poachers. In addition, it was affected by an influx of refugees and militia during the Congo civil war and the Rwandan genocide, as well as ongoing skirmishes with rebel groups.

It is home to 200 endangered mountain gorillas, which is a quarter of the world’s population. Recent years have been a success story for the park, thanks to the efforts of conservationists and local rangers, which has seen the number of mountain gorillas more than double in the past decade. However, many of the park’s staff have been killed by poachers and militias.

The UK government has expressed its opposition to drilling inside the park.

However Soco’s chairman, Rui de Sousa, insisted that the firm was “extremely sensitive to the environmental significance of the Virunga National Park.”

Constrained exploration

Mr de Sousa said that exploration in the park “was constrained by a strict step-by-step process that requires the direct approval of the DR Congo authorities at each phase and there is specific emphasis on environmental monitoring studies.”

Mr de Sousa also claimed that “If DR Congo did proceed with oil exploration, then Soco would be the best operator.”

The Soco chairman also pointed out that “oil discoveries have been made across the border in Uganda, and that the DR Congo currently has no exploratory data to support the theory that these oil reserves may traverse the DR Congo border, and without such data, it is possible that the country would have no financial gain from shared reservoirs with Uganda.”

Mr de Sousa also said that the Virunga National Park “has been in decline for many years, officially falling below the standards required for a World Heritage Site.”