Various organisations are calling to ban deep-sea mining in the Pacific region
Greenpeace is standing in support of a Pacific-led push to draw a Blue Line against the emerging Deep Sea Mining industry, the organisation said Thursday.
A collection of Pacific civil society groups, including the Pacific Conferences of Churches (PCC), Pacific Islands Association of NGOs (PIANGO), and Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), and the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG) released an open letter on Thursday, calling for Deep Sea Mining to be banned across the globe.
Other signatories on the letter include the Pacific Youth Council, Greenpeace and WWF.
Launching the letter live on Youtube, Pacific groups stated:
“As custodians to protect our Ocean against its exploitation and destruction, we have a moral obligation and longstanding legacy to uphold. Be on the right side of history and join our Pacific call for a global ban on Deep Sea Mining.”
Greenpeace Aotearoa campaigner Jessica Desmond said the environmental NGO stands in solidarity with other Pacific nations in their call to ban the practice.
“Mining companies from the Global North want to exploit the Pacific region for rare minerals, plundering the seafloor and risking irreversible damage to marine life, biodiversity and the carbon cycle,” she said.
“Pacific communities rely on the ocean. It is their food basket, many of their livelihoods, and is of great cultural significance. It is unacceptable that international mining companies want to put that at risk for their own gain.
“Greenpeace supports the incredible members of the Pacific community standing up to this dangerous new industry and the call to ban Deep Sea Mining now.
“We cannot protect the ocean if we continue to find new ways to exploit it. Extractive industries have done so much damage to our blue planet already, and we cannot afford to add one more pressure on the ocean.
“We cannot mine our way to a better Earth. We have the opportunity to do things differently this time – and we must seize that opportunity with both hands if we want a healthy ocean and habitable planet for years to come,” said Desmond.
