Indigenous groups, activists resist Congo’s oil block plan

The auctioning of oil and gas blocks in Congo has stirred resistance and concern among local Indigenous communities worried about damage to their homes and large swaths of forest, according to a report released Thursday by several environmental groups.

In late July, the Congolese government put 30 oil and gas blocks in the country up for auction with 13 blocks crisscrossing through protected areas and national parks, causing uproar among environmentalists. The Congo Basin forest absorbs an extraordinary 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide — about 4% of global emissions — some of which would be released into the atmosphere if the areas are cleared for oil and gas drilling.

The report comes just days before Congo’s government is set to co-host with Egypt a meeting on climate change in the capital Kinshasa. That’s ahead of the United Nations’ climate summit in November in Egypt.

But concerns about the blocks extend well