NGOs criticise Pacific rush to deep-sea mining

Updated June 1, 2011 08:03:50

Despite the promise of riches from deep-sea mining, there are calls for a moratorium on the granting of exploration licences in the Pacific.

Papua New Guinea has granted the world's first commercial lease for deep-sea mining in January and several other Pacific nations have granted or are negotiating exploration licenses.

Non-government organisations are concerned about the rush in adopting deep-sea mining, saying there needs to be more consultation and research about the long term impacts.

A workshop in Fiji next week will examine the issue of the still unproven mining technique.


Presenter:Geraldine Coutts
Speaker:Maureen Penjueli, co-ordinator, Pacific Network on Globalisation

PENJUELI: Just to clarify PANG's position and role, in relation to two groups that we work with very closely in Papua New Guinea. These two groups are ACT NOW! and Bismarck Ramu group, both of which work very strongly on the issue of deep sea mining in Papua New Guinea. Now our role as a regional NGO is to support the concerns of these two particular groups at a regional platform. Now the meeting next week is certainly one regional platform if you like where we can channel some of local partners concerns into regional forum if you like. The key issues of concerns in discussion with our local partners in PNG are still around issues of consultation. In the case of Papua New Guinea specifically since 2008 local communities have been resisting and are opposed to deep sea mining, particularly in New Ireland and New Britain. And so our role is to really facilitate and try and bring their voice through to the regional level. And so that meeting next week we'll try to articulate some of the concerns that our local partners have around deep sea mining.

COUTTS: Well are the concerns of the landowners being taken into place? I know that deep sea mining will probably more governmental because it's in their EEZ, but we're seeing time and time again in Papua New Guinea particularly that mining leases and agreements are signed and then there's trouble with the landowners. So is deep sea mining going to overcome those issues because it doesn't directly concern landowners?

PENJUELI: I think if you look at the statements that have come out from some of the local communities in Papua New Guinea around this deep sea mining issues in particular, you will find that landowners under their customary rights do take claim to resources not just on land but also the sea. And so their view is that these areas do impinge in some areas on their indigenous rights around ownership of resources. And I think that that's the key point is that we've seen, I mean this project is about sustainable management of resources, deep sea resources, and I think the key component of that has to take into consideration public opinion and public concern. In the case of Papua New Guinea obviously there has been lots of public concerns raised. In some of our other Pacific Island countries governments do take that view that this is national jurisdiction and therefore the role of public consultation may be diminished if you like. So our key focus needs to be from a NGO perspective is try to collate and mobilise public opinion across the Pacific and not just in PNG. And this is a big role, this is a new area that we're talking about and there's no resources. So it's something that I think we as NGOs at the regional level will have to take a step back after the meeting of next week to really figure out how do we bring local concerns through to the regional level and this regional project.

COUTTS: The technology is still being questioned, we saw the devastation in the Gulf last year and the difficulty in getting it capped after the deep sea mining. Is that also something that's being considered?

PENJUELI: I think these are things that are going to be raised next week at the meeting. Obviously issues around risk, who will bear the costs of risk and given that there's this new technology, we simply don't have enough knowledge about what the likely impacts are. Will the company be held responsible in the case of massive environmental damage? Or will the government be held responsible? These are key areas, and so I think for us as NGOs one of our key cornerstones if you like that we would really be pushing hard for is the precautionary principle, it has to guide and has to frame how we discuss and frame legislation and policies if you like. It's notably absent in some of the policy documents that we're seeing, documents coming out from the meeting that's going to take place next week, and I think this is the key, the precautionary principle has to guide this. In the absence of clear scientific evidence and analysis about potential environmental social impact we must err on the side of caution.

COUTTS: Are some Pacific governments, eight I think have signed exploration licenses, are they rushing headlong in because of the global downturn, they need money, they'll get it wherever there is, while there's not much known or not enough known about the technology and this deep seabed mining, is that the concern that the miners will rush in, get all these projects going and then they'll find out what the problems are as they go along?

PENJUELI: Well absolutely, and that's one of the key things is it we, I mean there's an acknowledgement that we in the Pacific do not have the human resources nor the capacity to managing this new frontier of development in our region. And I think that there needs to be some acknowledgement to try and slow the projects down as much as possible so that we can get a better understanding of what the likely implications are before we rush in to this new area. And I think we can take some lessons from other parts of the world, and as you mentioned the oil spills that happened, the Gulf, we can look at some our land-based mining that's not done really well in the Pacific. I mean we have the promise of economic growth but this whole trickle-down economic growth model really doesn't work in the case of land-based mining. So I think we need to be very careful that before we can move on to this new frontier, which is the deep sea, that we really take our time to consider some of the issues, really look at the risks. I think too many times people tend to focus on economic benefits, we need to understand what the risks are going to be fully so that we can start to look at how you manage before we can manage the resources.

COUTTS: Well you and other groups are calling for a moratorium on the granting of exploration licenses in the Pacific, but there are also two Pacific NGOs who are not in agreement with the meeting that you will be attending next week, so not everyone is in support of your point of view?

PENJUELI: That's true, engagement is really quite problematic, it's a key issue for NGOs, partly because in this particular case it looks like the project is still going to go ahead and you have governments and in particular the PNG government has gone ahead and issued a commercial license to Nautilus. And so it is a very difficult position to take in terms of whether to engage in these meetings or not. But I think the point has to be that we've got to try to bring in concerns because it's obvious that this is a key meeting that will guide legislative and policy framework for the region. This is just one, participation does not mean that we do agree with or give our consent to deep sea mining going ahead, and I think that's always the been the key concern for NGOs is that whether our participation will then give consent or been seen to be giving consent to some of these regional processes. We view it that we can help some of our local partners on the ground to try and articulate their concerns at the regional platform where some of these issues will have implications for the work that they do. So we do have a role as a regional NGO to play that, to facilitate and to mobilise and to see how we can bring in particular social dimensions and concerns that people might have into this regional meeting.