Opinion | How does drilling for oil in Uganda’s national park live up to China’s COP15 biodiversity pledge?
- Chinese state firms are involved in the planned East African Crude Oil Pipeline and oilfields, which threaten the biodiversity-rich area and local livelihoods
- Instead of locking Uganda into a ‘brown transition’, China should live up to its COP15 and stop investing in such projects
I can’t help but wonder if President Xi is aware of how Chinese investment is fuelling a biodiversity crisis in my community right now – and a “brown transition” from the green lifestyle we have cherished for generations.
I live with my child in Hoima district in Western Uganda, one of the richest natural habitats in the world. It includes Lake Albert, the headwaters of the Nile and Congo rivers, Murchison Falls National Park – one of Uganda’s largest parks and a critical draw for tourism – and the Murchison Falls-Albert Delta system, an internationally protected Ramsar wetland. This area contains biodiversity unparalleled on the African continent.
President Xi referenced a Chinese proverb in his speech that says, “all living things should flourish without harming each other”. I am proud that my community has long lived by these words, protecting our region’s natural beauty and biodiversity. Now, I am horrified by what the EACOP and associated oilfields could do to our home.
Under its Kingfisher project, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) is putting its central processing facility and well pads directly within the sensitive Buhuka Flats area on the shores of Lake Albert. Under the Tilenga project, French oil giant TotalEnergies plans to drill about 140 oil wells within Murchison Falls National Park.
