Petitioners call for mining ‘caution’

A coalition of Pacific civil society organisations is on Rarotonga this week to raise awareness of their petition in support of a moratorium on seabed mining in the region.

Representatives of Act Now!, Pacific Network on Globalisation and the Pacific Conference of Churches met with Pacific media yesterday to spread their message and to publicly release a 10-page legal opinion prepared by the US-based Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (eLAW).

The coalition asked eLAW for a legal opinion on whether the precautionary principle applies in the context of Pacific seabed mining activity, in an effort to arrest a deep sea mineral project being presently funded by SOPAC in 15 states. (The Cook Islands is one of them.)

The precautionary principle is that if an action or policy is suspected of being harmful to the public or environment – and in the absence of scientific consensus or proof to the contrary – those people or groups taking the action have a responsibility to prove it is not.

The eLAW opinion suggests that Pacific governments should impose a moratorium on seabed mining until scientists and researchers have been able to amass more information about its impact on the environment and on island communities.

It invokes a decision made by the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales, and quotes from it: ”It may be too late, or too difficult and costly, to change a course of action once it is proven to be harmful. The preference is to prevent environmental damage, rather than remediate it“.

The opinion concludes that because little is known about seafloor mining technology and its impact on the environment, the mining of the seafloor poses ”significant risks and uncertainties“.

Pacific Network on Globalisation coordinator Maureen Penjuli quotes CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) lead marine scientist Dr Chris Yeats in support: ”We know more about the surfaces of Mars and Venus than we know about deep ocean floor“, he once said.

Penjuli says that because not enough is known about the impact of mining on the seafloor, governments should be more careful about issuing exploratory and mining licences.

”Advocates of seabed mining such as industry, SOPAC, and many of our own governments claim that the precautionary principle can be fulfilled simply by monitoring mining activities as they occur and taking action to remedy impacts to the marine environment when they are observed.

”The legal opinion is very clear that this is an incorrect interpretation of the precautionary principle, which seeks to prevent environmental damage before it occurs. Furthermore, this approach places a heavy burden on Pacific Island nations that lack capacity to closely monitor and evaluate mining activities that are occurring in areas that are remote and difficult to reach,“ she said.

”It is almost impossible to implement a precautionary approach if the technology and practice is assumed to be ‘innocent until proven guilty’ of harmful impacts. This approach, supported by SOPAC and industry, allows irreversible harm to occur before preventative actions can be taken.“

SOPAC (a division of SPC), using European Union funding, is assisting Pacific states in pushing forward a regional legislative and regulatory framework for experimental and seabed mining. The framework is expected to be unveiled at this week’s Forum.

Under the proposed framework, ”experimental seabed mining becomes established as a lawful activity, without the benefit of adequate scientific debates nor of prior public dialogue and meaningful community participation“, the coalition says.

Said Claire Kouru of Act Now! PNG yesterday: ”We are concerned that the SOPAC project is fast-tracking and legitimising this industry“.

Murray Isimeli of the Pacific Conference of Churches said yesterday that his aim, in being involved with the petition, is to ”bring these growing concerns (and) this opposition from around the region to the doorstep of our leaders“.

He confirmed that his team is meeting this week with staff from the deputy prime minister’s office, and from the prime minister’s office, as well as with officials from other visiting government delegations. He did acknowledge the consultations that have been held in the Cook Islands, and suggested that the Cook Islands might prove a good example of how to approach seafloor mining with caution.

The coalition’s petition, which has over 8300 signatures (not counting signatures on its website), will be circulating this week.