Stop Oil drilling in the Okavango, a UNESCO World Hertitage Site

Re-con Africa, a Canadian oil company, is drilling for oil in the Okavango Delta, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Botswana and Namibia in southern Africa. Many local people and community organizations in Namibia and Botswana are opposed. They have largely been left out of consultations on the Environmental Impact Assessment. Recently the San People, Indigenous to the area, have petitioned to have the development stopped.

Irreversible damage can be done, or can be blocked. For example, the area has the last free roaming herds of Savana Elephants already listed as endangered. The Okavango Delta is Africa’s largest inland delta, located in the Kalahari Desert. It floods annually with life-sustaining waters needed by the San People, Indigenous to the Kalahari, as well as large herds of migratory African Elephants, Cape Buffalo, Red Lechwe, Zebra, and some of the world’s most endangered species including Cheetah, White Rhino, Black Rhino, African Wild Dogs, Giraffes, and Lions.