A new alliance of parliamentarians from across the Pacific has called for a regional dialogue on the potential impacts of deep sea mining.
The public launch of the Pacific Parliamentarians’ Alliance on Deep Sea Mining (PPADSM) established “a collective of Pacific leaders who share the strong concern to protect the ocean in light of the rush by large corporations, backed by powerful governments, to mine the ocean floor for minerals before regulatory governance structures and measures are put in place.”
The new network is chaired by Ralph Regenvanu MP, and Vanuatu Opposition leader. The launch on 13 April featured presentations by former Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga; Governor of PNG’s Oro Province Gary Juffa; Moetai Brotherson of Maohi Niu (French Polynesia) and Hon. Teanau Tuiono of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand.
As they launched the statement “A Call To Protect Our Pacific Ocean”, PPADSM has received endorsements from politicians across the region, from Tuvalu, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Palau, Guam, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Bougainville, and Aotearoa New Zealand.
Introducing the statement, Regenvanu highlighted the importance of the ocean in Pacific cultures. “As Pacific peoples, the ocean is central to life and wellbeing,” he said. “From it we draw our identity, affirm our existence and spirituality, and cultivate and sustain our relationships.”
The former Vanuatu foreign minister also stressed the diverse range of threats to marine ecosystems: “The health of our ocean is already under unprecedented threats from a multitude of human induced stressors such as overfishing, pollution, plastics, nuclear waste and radioactive material, and biodiversity loss. Indeed, the climate crisis, with the related impacts of ocean warming and acidification and rising sea levels, are also taking a heavy toll.”
For this reason, he said, “we support the overwhelming and growing scientific evidence of the impacts of Deep Sea Mining (DSM), and express serious concern at the potentially devastating and irreversible damage to ecosystems and habitats.”
Exploring and exploiting the deep
A number of transnational corporations, partnered by developing nations, are developing and trialling the complex technologies for DSM, aiming to collect metal-rich resources from the depths of the ocean floor. These seabed minerals include seafloor massive sulphides, cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts, and polymetallic nodules.
These potentially valuable mineral resources are found in deep ocean locations across the vast Pacific, within the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of island nations as well as international waters. While it allows DSM within EEZs, UNCLOS also allows developing countries to partner with overseas corporations to licence exploration in international waters known as “The Area.” For our region, this means mineral-rich deep ocean trenches like the Clipperton-Clarion fracture in the north Pacific.
While states like Fiji have called for a regional moratorium on DSM, four Pacific island governments – Nauru, Kiribati, Tonga and Cook Islands – are working with corporate partners to advance DSM projects. This was highlighted by a recent intervention from the Nauru government at the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the authority established by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to govern seabed mining.
Despite years of debate, the ISA has failed to finalise any binding regulatory framework to allow DSM to proceed. In June last year, however, Nauru formally activated an UNCLOS provision giving the ISA a two-year deadline to finalise the regulations. With little time to negotiate such complex global arrangements, many governments are worried that DSM will begin soon without proper international regulation.
Given these differences amongst Forum member states, Regenvanu called for a regional dialogue on the issue: “We acknowledge the decisions taken by our fellow Pacific island states of Nauru, Tonga, Kiribati and Cook Islands to pursue deep sea mining in their respective jurisdictions and the international area. As the chair of the PPADSM, I appeal to our Pacific leaders and legislatures to join us and to engage in open talks to address the deep sea mining issue in the Pacific on a regional and not a national basis.”
At the PPADSM launch, former Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga noted the potential impact of unregulated DSM in international waters. He noted the stalemate last month of global negotiations for an international treaty to protect marine biodiversity beyond the national jurisdiction of states, known as BBNJ. The latest round of BBNJ talks failed to create a legal framework to prevent greater loss of marine biodiversity, though Sopoaga noted: “While negotiations have stalled for the time being, we cannot let minor differences get in the way of an important agreement. This must be done in urgency. We draw particular attention to the need to define effective environmental impact assessment procedures on the high seas.”
Debate between governments
The new parliamentarians’ initiative comes at a time of widespread international debate over potential environmental hazards from DSM. Environmental groups, ocean researchers, indigenous peoples organisations, churches and a growing number of governments are concerned that the ocean floor will become a new frontier for uncontested, risky technologies.
A resolution calling for a DSM ban was adopted at the September 2021 IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille. While 81 governments and government agencies supported the ban, 18 voted against, and 28 abstained. As Islands Business reported in February, host nation France refused to support the resolution – no small issue in our region, given the French state claims control of more than 5,000,000 km² of EEZ around Clipperton atoll and its three Pacific dependencies.
In the Pacific, a number of companies have already proposed ocean mining projects, although all have foundered from a mix of economic, legal and political reasons.
In 2019, the Nautilus Minerals corporation abandoned a long, contested effort to mine seabed minerals beneath PNG’s Bismarck Sea, under licence from the PNG government. Last September, the NZ Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Trans-Tasman Resources, seeking to overturn a decision that stopped its iron sand ocean mining project off South Taranaki. This month, Tuvalu Foreign Minister Simon Kofe told Radio Australia that the government had withdrawn its sponsorship for Circular Metals Tuvalu to bid for DSM approval through the ISA.
In its new statement, PPADSM supports “the growing international call for a moratorium on DSM in line with the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development to scientifically assess whether DSM can be done in a way that avoids harm to ocean ecosystems, recognising the interconnectedness of these ecosystems beyond national jurisdictions.”
Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum welcomed the new parliamentary initiative, tweeting: “Fiji has banned deep seabed mining in this decade because we believe we cannot destroy what we do not understand –– grateful to see momentum building for this commitment up and down the Great Blue Wall of the Pacific.”
Regulating colonial powers
A number of parliamentarians endorsing the new alliance come from provincial administrations and the US and French dependencies across the Pacific, including Senator Sabina Flores Perez of Guam; the Speaker of New Caledonia’s Congress Rock Wamytan; Minister for Primary Industries in the Autonomous Bougainville Government Geraldine Yolanda Paul and Maohi politician Moetai Brotherson.
They highlight repeated United Nations resolutions that call on Administering Powers “to ensure that the exploitation of the marine and other natural resources in the Non-Self-Governing Territories under their administration … does not adversely affect the interests of the peoples of those Territories.”
Moetai Brotherson is a member of the Tavini Huiraatira party, who represents French Polynesia, serves in the French National Assembly in Paris. His homeland has an EEZ of nearly 5 million square kilometres, and ocean-floor resources that could potentially be a valuable resource in future decades.
“There are many studies that show that most of the minerals in the French maritime area are in French Polynesia or Wallis and Futuna,” Brotherson said. “So tomorrow, it is very, very, very likely that France is going to come to our shores to exploit those minerals despite the known limitations of the technologies that we have today. This is why we want to regain our sovereignty, to be able to decide not to do this folly.”
Despite a 2004 autonomy statute giving powers over maritime resources to Papeete, France’s highest constitutional court has ruled that strategic metals come under the control of the French State rather than the Government of French Polynesia. Brotherson noted: “Our so-called statute of autonomy says we are in control of our deep sea minerals, with the notable exception of all strategic metals. But this list of strategic materials [sic] is being defined by Paris and Paris only.”
Echoing the history of ecological devastation caused by terrestrial mining in Nauru and Banaba, Brotherson spoke of the impact of past phosphate mining on Makatea. He also recalled the use of the Pacific as a laboratory for unproven technologies during the era of nuclear testing, when France conducted 193 nuclear tests at Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls.
“With those tests, France has gained a seat at the United Nations in the P5 club as a nuclear power,” he said. “On our side, we are already facing many people dead from nuclear-induced diseases and many, many getting sick every year. From the environment perspective, the legacy may be even more daunting.”
For Brotherson, the nuclear era should provide important lessons as island nations debate the future of DSM: “The argument was that, due to the nuclear tests, there has been economic development. Sure, but who benefited from this economic development and who’s facing the dire consequences of these tests? If we don’t do anything, the same schema is going to repeat itself at the level of deep sea mining.”
“A Call To Protect Our Pacific Ocean” can be found at: https://www.pacificblueline.org/pacificparliamentarians
