PACIFIC civil society groups are calling on their governments to place an outright ban on deep sea mining.
As a high-level meeting on DSM concludes in Suva this week, the Pacific Blue Line Collective and partners remain firmly opposed to any possibility of deep-sea mining.
Their call has been echoed by Greenpeace, whose seabed mining campaigner Juressa Lee said Pacific leaders had received a strong and clear message from civil society groups across the Pacific.
“(They are) urging them to reject wannabe deep sea miners with selfish agendas and their propaganda that they can destroy the deep sea to save us from the climate crisis,” she said.
“The undersigned groups represent a growing broad and strong resistance from across Te Moananui a Kiwa against this emerging form of extractivism and colonisation.”
Ms Lee said this long-standing opposition of civil society asserted their mana and birth-righted guardianship of their homes, and the authority and necessity of indigenous voices and indigenous knowledge systems in any decisions that pertain to their homes, which includes the ocean.
“Civil society groups argue that indigenous rights, the rights of Pacific peoples, their knowledge systems and a healthy environment should be at the centre of all conversations and decision-making, alongside the best available, robust and independent science.
“Pacific leaders and global leaders must hear this call from civil society to centre Pacific communities and the environments of which they are guardians.”
