18 March 11: Irina Bokova, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), has welcomed the suspension of oil prospection at Virunga National Park (Democratic Republic of the Congo), which has been inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1979.

José Endundo Bononge, Minister for Environment, Nature Conservation and Tourism of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, announced that the Government will abandon all plans for oil exploitation within this World Heritage site, which is home to one of the last remaining mountain gorilla populations and covers a wide range of different habitats, harboring exceptional biological diversity. The decision was announced following the commitments made in the Kinshasa Declaration, which was signed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by the Prime Minister and the Director-General of UNESCO on 14 January 2011, during a high level meeting. [UNESCO Press Release] [World Heritage Webpage for the Park]