Oil company accused of drilling in African wildlife reserve, offering jobs for silence
Canada-based ReconAfrica appears to have flouted Namibian law, legal experts say.
RUNDU, NAMIBIACanadian oil and gas exploration company Reconnaissance Energy Africa has bulldozed land for a test oil well inside a protected wildlife area in northeastern Namibia, and two local leaders say they were offered jobs in return for their silence.
Kapinga Kamwalye Conservancy borders the Okavango River and extends more than 22 miles south into the Kalahari Desert. Established in 2018 to protect habitat for charismatic animals such as elephants and rare sable antelope, the conservancy also attracts tourism and provides jobs for some of its 3,700 residents. Villages are interspersed among groves of towering teak, rosewood, and mopane trees, which offer vital shade.
But last December, the oil company came.
Today a clearing the size of five football fields scars the Kapinga Kamwalye refuge, sensitive land bulldozed in January by ReconAfrica for an exploratory drill site. Pits holding waste from test drilling are filled with dark liquid. Fields are pocked with the heavy imprint of metal seismic testing plates. Ripped-up trees lie in blackened heaps alongside wide tracks through the bush.
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The company didn’t submit its application to the land board until June 28, nearly six months after the land was cleared and drilling began, according to Muronga, who also sits on the board. The board’s chairman, Bernardino Mbumba, confirmed during a parliamentary hearing in Windhoek on November 23 that the company’s application is still pending—even though ReconAfrica began bulldozing the land for its oil well in January 2021.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/oil-company-reconafrica-accused-of-drilling-in-african-wildlife-reserve?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=crm-email::src=ngp::cmp=editorial::add=Animals_20211216::rid=2D7EBD8232363870D75E126868635ACF
Large variety of wildlife there, hippos, elephants, lions, giraffes, and endangered African wild dogs. Humans.
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