The European Union has advised the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) not to allow oil drilling in a huge stretch of land spanning nature-rich rainforests and peatlands which the EU and DRC have labelled a “Green Corridor”.

In January, the DRC and EU announced the creation of a ‘Green Corridor’ the size of France stretching across the DRC from Kivu in the conflict-torn east to Kinshasa in the west. But the partly EU-funded project was immediately criticised by Indigenous and local groups in the eastern DRC as vaguely-defined and lacking public consultation.

In May, the Central African nation announced it was allowing oil companies to bid for drilling rights in blocks which, according to a new report by Earth Insight, cover nearly three-quarters of the corridor, “jeopardizing its ecological integrity and undermining its credibility as a sustainable development and climate solution”.

EU responds to oil auction

A spokesperson for the EU’s executive arm – the European Commission – told Climate Home that it is “aware and monitors closely” the DRC’s decision to auction oil licenses in the corridor.

While the EU “fully acknowledges and respects the DRC’s sovereign right to utilise its diverse resources for economic development”, the spokesperson said, it “highlights the fact that green alternatives have facilitated the protection of certain areas, such as the Virunga National Park [in the eastern DRC], which is now free from oil concessions.”

They added that the Green Corridor is expected to follow the model pursued in Virunga of “nature conservation alongside effective green economic development”.

They said that “at the current moment,” there is no legal protection status prohibiting oil exploration or extraction in the corridor. But the European Commission will “reinforce its policy dialogue with the DRC government to ensuring adherence to the rule of law and honouring international agreements and commitments concerning biodiversity, forest resources, and climate impact.”

“We are confident that through joint work between the DRC and the EU, it is possible to promote DRC’s role in combating climate change while preserving and protecting the unique ecosystems it shelters,” the European Commission spokesperson said. 

Cuvette Centrale peatlands

These new oil blocks cut across more than half the DRC – spanning an area the size of South Africa – and cover more than half of the country’s remaining intact forests, threatening vast areas of ecological importance, cultural and spiritual lands as well as disrupting local livelihoods, the Earth Insights report said. 

The licensing round also encompasses nearly the entire DRC portion of the Cuvette Centrale – the world’s largest peatlands– which stores massive amounts of carbon, critical to fighting climate change. This puts vast tracts of this fragile ecosystem in direct danger of exploration and drilling, the report warns, adding that extractive development in such waterlogged and carbon-rich soils carries catastrophic risk. 

Vittoria Moretti, Rainforest Foundation UK’s Kinshasa-based forest campaigner for the Congo Basin, said the DRC government is driving an “incoherent and double standard narrative”, whereby it vocally supports climate action while doing the opposite.  

“On one side, it [DRC government] embraces the Green Corridor and promotes the narrative of the DRC as the solution country to the climate crisis and wanting to support that with initiatives like the Green Corridor and with the carbon finance and then it comes up with a new round of oil and gas blocks”, she said.   

The DRC has attempted to start oil drilling before. In 2022, it launched an auction of oil blocks which was criticised by environmental c