Gold Mining Operation Spreads into Protected Area of Congo

Gold Mining Operation Spreads into Protected Area of Congo

A Chinese-run gold mine in eastern Congo’s Ituri province is slowing spreading into an area that many say it should not be operating in at all. The area is the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, an endangered World Heritage site.

Congo’s government established the boundaries, or borders, of the reserve around thirty years ago.

But over the years the boundaries changed. These changes permitted the company to operate inside the forest.

The reserve was already on the endangered list, under threat from conflict and wildlife trafficking.

In this undated photo, an okapi stands in a protected area as part of a captive breeding program in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in Congo. (Okapi Conservation Project via AP)

An “alarming” situation

Now the quick growth of the Chinese mines threatens to further hurt the forest and the communities living in it.

Residents and wildlife experts say the mining is polluting the rivers and soil, damaging trees and bringing more humans to the area. As a result, illegal hunting has increased.

Joe Eisen of Rainforest Foundation UK described the situation as “alarming.” He said that the area is “supposed to be a protected World Heritage Site” that was already at risk.

Covering more than 13,000 square kilometers, the reserve became a protected place in 1996. The area has wide biological diversity and many threatened species. These include the okapi, a forest giraffe, for which the reserve is named.

The reserve holds some 15 percent of the world’s remaining 30,000 okapi.

The reserve is in the Congo Basin rainforest — the world’s second-biggest rainforest. The rainforest is a major carbon sink. Carbon sinks help limit climate change. The area also has a large amount of mineral wealth such as gold and diamonds.

Under Congo’s mining rules, mining is barred in protected areas, which includes the reserve.

Issa Aboubacar, a spokesperson for the Chinese company, Kimia Mining Investment, said the group is operating legally. It recently renewed its permits until 2048, government records show.

Congo’s mining registry said the map they are using came from files from the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature, or ICCN. The ICCN is a government group responsible for supervising Congo’s protected areas. The mining registry also said it is currently working with the ICCN on changing the boundaries and protecting the park.

The ICCN told The Associated Press (AP) that in meetings this year with the mining registry, boundary misunderstandings were discussed. It also said the first boundaries should be honored.

A government document from August, seen by AP, said all companies in the Reserve will be closed, including Kimia Mining.

The document has not been reported until now and is the first admission that the current boundaries are wrong, environmentalists working in Congo say.

Rights groups in Congo have long said the permits were illegally awarded by the mining ministry based on incorrect maps.

Children walk and play music on plastic jugs at the Epulu village in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in Congo, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick)

Changing boundaries and rules

Eastern Congo has seen violence for many years. The Okapi Reserve has seen years of unrest by local militia.

In 2012, in Epulu town, a local rebel group killed several residents, including two officers of the reserve, and 14 okapis. The animals were part of a captive breeding program.

The reserve has also been threatened by smaller mining activities, including by thousands of Indigenous peoples who live in and around the forest.

I’m John Russell.

Sam Mednick reported on this story for the Associated Press. John Russell adapted it for VOA Learning English.

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Words in This Story

reserve – n. something set aside for a particular purpose, use, or reason, such as an area of public land

diversity – n. the condition of having or being composed of differing elements

alarming – adj. causing people to feel danger or alarm or to be worried or frightened

resident – n. one who lives in a place