Petition to ban seabed mining will be delivered to Parliament

Wednesday, 8 June 2022

A petition signed by more than 35,000 New Zealanders urging the Government to ban seabed mining in Aotearoa, will be delivered to Parliament on Wednesday – World Oceans Day.

This follows calls made by Pacific civil society and conservation groups during an online forum hosted by the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition in Aotearoa last weekend.

The forum urged Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her government to show regional leadership and support an international moratorium on seabed mining in the region.

Kiwis Against Seabed Mining (KASM) and Greenpeace Aotearoa will hand the petition to Green Party MP Eugenie Sage and Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer on Parliament’s forecourt at 1pm on Wednesday.

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Iwi, including Ngāti Ruanui, along with members from Oceanic Voices and the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC), will also attend.

The signatures were gathered by Greenpeace, KASM, DSCC, Environment & Conservation Organisations of Aotearoa New Zealand (ECO), LegaSea, Forest and Bird, WWF and Te Pāti Māori.

Seabed mining is an emerging industry that environmental groups warn will harm ocean health and marine life.

In New Zealand, Trans Tasman Resources is seeking permits to mine the South Taranaki Bight. In the Pacific, mining companies from around the world are pushing for rules to allow them to mine the deep sea.

But groups such as the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG) and the Pacific Blue Line (PBL) are calling for a ban on deep seabed mining in the region.

Joey Tau, the Fiji-based deputy co-ordinator of PANG and PBL, said Pacific people were calling for an ethical approach and greater consultation.

“For us here in the Pacific, the ocean is an important part of us,” Tau said. “New Zealand has a moral responsibility to the region, to push a high ethical position. We need a collective regional response to say no to deep sea mining. We did it for a nuclear-free zone, and we can do it again for a deep sea mining-free zone. The challenge is whether New Zealand will take a leading role in the region and the Pacific Islands Forum.”

Pelenatita Kara, manager of the national campaign against deep-sea mining and campaign manager of the Civil Society Forum in Tonga, said New Zealand needed to protect Pacific Island nations from extractive activities that would harm the moana and coastal resources.

'Tonga is not equipped and not ready to be a sponsoring partner of the metal mining company,' said Kara. 'We care about the livelihoods of our people and Tonga does not have the cash, expertise or legislation to manage this.

“We know barely anything about deep sea mining and the legal framework we have is not robust enough. The legal liability will fall on the rest of the community to pay. If there are any issues with the mining like pollution, we don’t have the finance to manage it.

“Despite saying 'no', the Government is still going ahead because they think there is a potential source of revenue, but the money that might come, will never balance out the environmental degradation and damage to the livelihood of Tongan people.'

Duncan Currie, legal adviser for the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, said instead of leading, New Zealand was supporting measures that allowed seabed mining to begin.

“New Zealand must acknowledge that adopting regulations will mean the start of seabed mining,” Currie said.

“The rush to develop regulations is extremely misguided, and New Zealand needs to support Pacific nations concerned with the health of the Pacific Ocean which is so critical to their livelihoods and culture and support a moratorium on deep seabed mining.”

Currie said the financial benefits for individual countries had not been realised.

Nauru has agreed not to charge corporate income tax, Papua New Guinea lost US$120 million in the seabed mining venture they embarked on with Solwara I (deep sea mining project), and Odyssey is suing Mexico for US$3.5 billion for not granting a seabed mining consent, Currie said.

Teanau Tuiono, Green MP and member of the Pacific Parliamentarians’ Alliance on Deep Sea Mining, acknowledged that there is a climate and biodiversity crisis. “We have a long history of using the Pacific as a place where we go and take things, it’s also seen as a place where we can get cheap labour, and that is New Zealand’s history of having an exploitative role in the Pacific,” Tuiono said.

“We need proper consultation with Pacific communities, and we need to support indigenous and environmental leadership in the Pacific. This is untested science, it does not make any sense.”

Phil McCabe, the Pacific regional lead on deep sea mining for the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, summed up the three key areas of concern: Lack of scientific knowledge, unavoidable environmental harm and the urgent need for reform of the regulating body, the International Seabed Authority (ISA).

He said urgent reform of the ISA was something that leaders “can tangibly take immediate action on”.

James Hita, of Greenpeace Aotearoa, said the government should take a strong stand against deep sea mining in the Pacific and announce New Zealand’s support for a global moratorium.

In March this year, the Pacific Elders’ Voice (PEV) – comprising former heads of state across the region – called for a halt to seabed mining. Concerns included the environmental, social and cultural impacts, the lack of scientific and technical information, and a lack of regulatory capacity on processes for deep-sea mining.

“It is a fact that most of the Pacific Island countries contemplating seabed mining do not have the capacity to effectively monitor such mining operations in which they may be involved,' the PEV said in a statement.

It said the ocean floor held great “significance and spirituality” for Pacific people and that this should be considered should seabed mining be contemplated.

In April 2022, the Pacific Parliamentarians Alliance on Deep Sea Mining - made up of parliamentarians from 10 jurisdictions across the region - supported the growing international call for a moratorium on deep sea mining in line with the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

This is to scientifically assess whether deep sea mining can be done in a way that avoids harm to ocean ecosystems, and recognising the interconnectedness of these ecosystems beyond national jurisdictions, the alliance said.

Following the petition delivery at Parliament on Wednesday, those gathered will walk along Wellington’s waterfront, a representative from Greenpeace Aotearoa said.