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Alexandre Brutelle

Director & Co-Founder @EIF (Environmental Investigative Forum)

Investigative Project Manager @CiFAR (Civil Forum for Asset Recovery)

Freelance Investigative Journalist

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What do we do at EIF ?

To research further, explore, experiment and further fill the gap between IJ and Climate Journalism.

To connect experts and journalists worldwide in this sense, develop new investigations, replicate frameworks and methodologies, through our networking & training activities.

To develop long-terms tools destined to environmental journalists worldwide, with our first African Mining Monitoring Platform coming out in Beta in November 2023, or our #Environmentaleaks.org whistleblowing platform published earlier this year.

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by A. Brutelle, L. Szulewicz, B. Nkoy (EIF), L. Minano, Maxence Peigné (IE), read here

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What is Perenco ?

EIF started a serie of investigations on Perenco’s activities in Tunisia since 2021, and expanded this serie with other media partners in 2022, with a follow up on the company’s activities in DRC

Perenco’s is the 2nd largest oil and gas operator in France after Total, active in 16 countries

Coined as the “low-cost” of petrol, the company’s strategy consists in acquiring end of life oil and gas plots across the world.

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Drawing a framework from

a past investigation

From previous work over the company’s wrongdoing in Tunisia, published in Inkyfada, Blast and Jeune Afrique, we had established that:

The company had operated over protected areas, without any specific authorization (namely a national park and a RAMSAR site).

The company was extracting oil & gas through the use of “unregulated” practices in Tunisia (= fracking)

The company was responsible for various incidents of pollution as well as legal harassment over local populations opposing its projects

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From Tunisia to DRC:

a “system” of env. abuses ?

To validate this hypothesis, we had the aforementioned 3 leads to dig into. Which meant we had to further:

Retrieve oil & gas blocks belonging to the company and projecting it over protected areas in the country

Dig into the extractive processes used by the company and their legal statuses

Do a literature review for all accounts of environmental and social prejudices over time, since the company’s implementation in DRC around 2016

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Cross-referencing Perenco’s borders

versus Protected Areas in DRC

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2. Reviewing unlawful extractive

processes through remote sensing

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3. Quantifying accounts of

pollution cases through literature review

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Impact: French NGO’s taking Perenco

to court over “environmental prejudice”

The results from our investigation led to the company’s prosecution in France by Friends of the Earth & Sherpa, namely based on:

Fossil fuel extractivism operations over a Mangrove Forest Reserve classified as a RASMAR site

Illegal flaring in a remote area, equaling to the carbon footprint of over 21 million congolese, where less than 400.000 are living (Muanda district)

Accounts of 167 cases of pollution relating to oil, soil and air pollution as well as alleged cases of health hazards

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Join us tomorrow !

Main conference hall, 10h45-11h30

www.eiforum.org�team@eiforum.org / alexandre.brutelle@eiforum.org �Linkedin