The Botswana and Namibian governments’ decisions to allow oil and gas exploration activities in the Okavango Delta remains a concern to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
The two neighbouring countries have licensed a Canadian company, ReconAfrica, to prospect for oil in the Cubango Okavango River Basin in an area covering 34,000km².
In a new report, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee says that it met recently and expressed “its utmost concern about the advancement of the oil and gas exploration activities, located outside the buffer zone, in the environmentally sensitive upstream areas of the Okavango Delta in northwestern Botswana and northeastern Namibia.”
Interconnected water system
UNESCO says these activities “may pose significant risks to the interconnected water system and the ecosystem, and could hence affect the property’s OUV (outstanding universal value)”. UNESCO’s position is “that mineral exploration or exploitation is incompatible with World Heritage status, which is supported by the International Council of Mining and Metals’ (ICMM) Position Statement of not undertaking such activities within World Heritage properties”.
“The advancement of the oil and gas exploration activities within the Okavango River Basin in Botswana and Namibia is of great concern, given the significant risks the expansion of these activities and any eventual exploitation of reserves would pose to the interconnected water system and the ecosystem, and hence the property’s OUV,” it says in a statement.
Critical prior review
UNESCO has called on Botswana, Angola and Namibia to ensure that “petroleum exploration and other large-scale development projects with potential adverse impact on the OUV of the property are subject to rigorous and critical prior review, including through EIAs (Environmental Impact Assessments) that correspond to international standards, including an assessment of social impacts and a review of potential impacts on the World Heritage property”.
UNESCO urged Namibia to submit “the EIA and the Environment Management Plan (EMP) for the ongoing oil exploration activities in the delta to the World Heritage Centre for review by IUCN (the International Union for Conservation of Nature without further delay”.
The UN agency says despite its committee’s request for Botswana and Namibia to keep the World Heritage Centre informed of the further stages of the oil and gas project, “no information on the reportedly completed EIA and EMP for the ongoing exploratory activities in Namibia has been shared”.
Social impacts
“It is of utmost importance that any stage of the project is subject to rigorous and critical prior review, including through EIAs that correspond to international standards, including an assessment of social impacts and a review of potential impacts on the World Heritage property, in conformity with the new Guidance and Toolkit for Impact Assessment in a World Heritage context,” it says.
It reiterates “its position that mineral exploration or exploitation is incompatible with World Heritage status, which is supported by the International Council of Mining and Metals’ (ICMM) Position Statement of not undertaking such activities within World Heritage properties”.
