12 June 2014: The British oil company SOCO International plc has announced that it will halt its operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) Virunga National Park. The company made the announcement in a joint statement with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), following a complaint the conservation organization filed under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises in October 2013.

In the statement, SOCO commits “not to undertake or commission any exploratory or other drilling within Virunga National Park unless the UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the DRC government agree that such activities are not incompatible with its World Heritage status.” The company further pledges to avoid operations in any other World Heritage Site. In a separate statement, UNESCO commended the decision, which brings SOCO in line with Shell, Total, and the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), companies that have also pledged to avoid petroleum exploration and mining operations in World Heritage sites.

SOCO Chairman, Rui de Sousa, said, “Our agreement with WWF focuses the need for the DRC Government and UNESCO to also reach an agreement on the best way to combine development and the environment.”

Director General of WWF International, Marco Lambertini, said the decision is “a victory for our planet and for good practices in business,” and further called on “the DRC government to reaffirm its conviction that Virunga has outstanding universal value for all humanity by cancelling all oil concessions overlapping the park as requested by UNESCO.” World Heritage Centre Director, Kishore Rao, similarly remarked, “We hope that the government of DRC will follow up on this commitment by SOCO and cancel all the oil exploration permits granted within the Virunga National Park, as requested also by the World Heritage Committee.”

Virunga was established in 1925 as Africa’s first national park and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979 in recognition of its biodiversity, which includes the critically endangered mountain gorilla. The park also provides fishing jobs for 27,000 people and freshwater for an additional 50,000 people living near Lake Edwards. [SOCO-WWF Joint Statement] [UN Press Release] [UNESCO Press Release] [WWF Press Release]