Pacific Peoples' Partnership

Connecting Indigenous and Pacific Peoples

PPP Supports Moratorium on Deep-Sea Mining (DSM)

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The Patania II used to collect polymetallic nodules from the seafloor in the Pacific. Image: DEME Group

Pacific Peoples’ Partnership is committed to protecting our oceans and environment as well as respecting both the economic and cultural resources of all Pacific People. That is why we support our partners at MiningWatch Canada, who are calling for a cautionary pause or moratorium on all deep-sea mining related activities. Until we can guarantee that there will be no adverse impacts, DSM poses a threat to biodiversity, and the cultural resources of many pacific communities.  Given the significant knowledge deficit that exists with regards to DSM, the government of Canada must take a strong stand to ensure the protection of these extremely vulnerable ecosystems.

Click here to read the letter calling on the Canadian Government to pause DSM activities.

For more reading on Deep-sea Mining:

Chin, A and Hari, K (2020), Predicting the impacts of mining of deep sea polymetallic nodules in the Pacific Ocean: A review of Scientific literature, Deep Sea Mining Campaign and MiningWatch Canada.

Mining the Deep Sea: Stories for suckers and corporate capture of the UN, Catherine Coumans. 2019. Arena Magazine.

Why the Rush? Seabed mining in the Pacific Ocean. Deep Sea Mining Campaign, London Mining Network, Mining Watch Canada. 2019.

Deep-Sea Mining in Tonga, Nauru and Kiribati: Not the silver bullet we are searching for. Peter Boldt. 2020. Pacific Peoples’ Partnership.

Deep-Sea Mining in Tonga, Nauru and Kiribati.

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Deep Sea Mining – Not the silver bullet we are searching for 

By Peter Boldt, PPP Multimedia Coordinator. Peter Boldt holds a Masters degree in International Development Studies and has worked in international research and projects relating to mining, corporate accountability and sustainable development.

The transition to a prosperous green future is possible. Large multilateral institutions, grassroots community organizations, political parties, and cutting-edge thinktanks among others have begun to take strong actions in the fight against climate change. The momentum to adopt renewable sources of energy has never been stronger, despite facing considerable pushback from an array of polluting and extractive industries. Mechanisms such as carbon markets, regulatory bodies, and watchdog organizations play a critical role in mitigating carbon emissions, as do innovations in green technologies ranging from highly efficient electric vehicles to sophisticated solar power plants that use sea water reservoirs to provide around the clock electricity. However, this dramatic shift has significantly increased demand for energy storage solutions which require production of vast amounts of metals and minerals such as lithium, cobalt, and manganese.

 The Patania II used to collect polymetallic nodules from the seafloor in the Clarion Clipperton Zone. Image: DEME Group

This unprecedented new demand has ushered in a boom for deep-sea mining (DSM), a once thought fringe high-risk venture which has now turned into a lucrative opportunity for transnational corporations. DSM involves harvesting metallic nodules from the sea floor at depths sometimes greater than three kilometers. Many of these mineral concentrations are located in what is known as the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a large area in the Eastern Pacific covering more than 4.5 million square kilometers. This area is regulated by an intergovernmental body known as the International Seabed Authority (ISA). This body is responsible for granting exploration contracts for DSM activities outside Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of respective countries. Thus far, South Pacific nations that have sponsored exploration initiatives both within their own EEZs and in the CCZ are Nauru, Cook Islands, Kiribati, and Tonga.

The extractive process is costly and extremely challenging from a technological perspective, given the great depths at which that machinery must operate and the remoteness of prospecting sites. Since it is a relatively new process, little technological progress has been made and detailed methods that corporations intend to use are not disclosed. This lack of transparency coupled with significant knowledge gaps of ecosystems at such remote depths has the potential to cause irreversible damage to fragile abyssal organisms and may trigger unprecedented chain reactions in already compromised ecosystems. The removal of nodules which serve as habitats, the creation of sediment plumes, and the discharge of waste, chemicals, and tailings has the potential to greatly disturb an area of the earth that we know very little about. In addition, the removal and disturbance of these fragile habitats is permanent. Nodules take millions of years to form and would guarantee a significant loss of biodiversity.

Polymetallic nodule with a shark tooth, recovered from 5000 meters below the Pacific. Image: Velizar Gordeev

Deep-sea mining has been lauded as a worthwhile economic opportunity, particularly for Small-Island Developing States (SIDS) whose economies rely heavily on tourism. In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many national governments are struggling to provide employment and have implemented austerity measures to soften economic shocks. Desperation has intensified the pressure to grant DSM licenses as transnational corporations seek to take advantage of the uncertain economic climate to push their agendas. 

The extraction of minerals, however, has very rarely led to sustainable development, particularly in the global south. In fact, extractive operations have often generated divisions in many communities and led to conflict over control of territories and resources. Economists have also long questioned whether natural resource extraction is in fact a path to equitable and long-lasting development. Land-based mines have often caused more harm than good and have resulted in irreversible damage to the surrounding environment and social fabric of communities.

 Tuna migrations are particularly vulnerable to changes in the deep-sea ecosystem. Credit: A. Pavel

The connection between the ocean and Pacific Peoples goes beyond economic dependence. As with Indigenous Peoples in British Columbia, Pacific Peoples view themselves as custodians, not owners, of the ocean and its resources. This relationship links to traditional Indigenous understandings and the concept of ensuring that resources are protected and accessible for future generations. Additionally, Pacific Peoples understand the interconnected nature of the ocean, and how it serves as a network to reefs, and other shallow waters. Understandably, many members of civil society and traditional leaders have spoken out against DSM, largely out of concern for the health of their protected waters. 

Canada is home to many mining companies, some of which specialize in deep-sea mining. However, Canada’s own Fisheries Act (2019) prevents any DSM exploration within Canadian borders since it could potentially release harmful substances in waters frequented by fish. In light of this, Canadian companies have set their sights internationally, often targeting the resource rich waters of countries that struggle economically, such as Papua New Guinea. For example, the Canadian company Nautilus Minerals Inc. which was the first venture to secure a license for DSM, failed and declared bankruptcy within a decade of beginning operations. This particular project, titled Solwara 1 DSM, disregarded community perspectives and inconsistencies were found in relation to their environmental impact assessments (EIAs). Canadian mining companies often operate with impunity abroad, and ignore the guidelines that are provided to them, which highlight the need for proper consultations and rigorously researched EIAs. 

 Pictured is Jonathan Mesulam, a leader and advocate of local communities, urging the PNG government to cancel Nautilus Minerals’ deep-sea mining licences. Image credit URL 

To date, the largest players eying South Pacific waters are:

    1. DeepGreen Metals, a private company based in Vancouver. (https://deep.green/) It currently holds a 15-year license to explore 74,830 square kilometres of the CCZ.
    2. Global Sea Mineral Resources, a Belgian subsidiary of the Deme Group. (https://www.deme-gsr.com/) It too holds a 15-year exploration license in the CCZ. 3
    3. The Cook Islands has expressed the strongest political interest in DSM. They also have significant amounts of nodules within their EEZ and have granted DSM licenses.

Overall, there has been little concern or attention given to the potential social and cultural impacts of DSM. Just as terrestrial mining has done for decades, the focus of transnationals has largely been placed on mitigating environmental effects or ‘greenwashing’, which is the practice of misleading investors and the public into buying into their narrative of being environmentally mindful. In order for social and cultural perspectives to be truly respected and considered, transnationals must go far beyond individual consultations and high-level closed-door business meetings. DSM transnationals must engage with all levels of society, and meaningfully explore the social and cultural implications DSM may have. This can only be achieved through extensive dialogue and genuine engagement, where community stakeholders are treated as equal participants in the process. 

For these conditions to be met, a moratorium on all DSM activities is urgently required, given the uncertainties surrounding environmental impacts and the lack of social or cultural impact assessments. MiningWatch Canada, along with other partners, published an extensive report in May 2020 which you can find here. It calls for a precautionary pause on the issuance of new DSM exploration contracts until further studies are conducted and DSM impacts are better understood.

Proponents argue that DSM will provide all the necessary materials to transition to clean energy; they champion DSM almost as the ‘extractions to end all extractions.’ The problem is no one knows for certain the environmental impacts DSM might cause, particularly because it has never been tried at a large scale and is for the most part an experimental process. The urgent need to innovate in the face of climate impacts is critical, but it should never disregard or come at the cost of compromising environmental, social, and cultural resources.

Pasifik Pulse: Palm Oil and Food Insecurity in Papua

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Palm Oil and Food Insecurity in Papua

Prepared by Tana Thomas, PPP Arts and Culture Coordinator, who is also a Nuu-chah-nulth youth leader, canoe skipper, and healing advocate.

In Papua, Indonesia’s largest and easternmost province of Indonesia, large scale palm oil plantation developments are not only threatening animal and plant species, but also the caretakers that have sustained these species for thousands of years. Sophie Chao, an anthropologist at the University of Sydney, has spent years working with the Indigenous Marind people of southern Papua. In her powerful article, she sheds light on the severe impacts that new palm oil plantations are having on the region. What she has discovered in her in-community work is that the Marind people are increasingly unable to obtain their traditional foods and are suffering from malnutrition. 

Merauke and Boven Digoel, the districts in southern Papua where oil palm estates are concentrated.

The practice of harvesting their own food is one of the many factors that sustains holistic wellbeing in many Indigenous communities. Witnessing the loss of their traditional foods can bring overwhelming feelings of grief and shame stemming from not being able to provide for their families. The Marind children of the village have grown up learning to sustain and create abundance within their natural food systems when harvesting. Since time immemorial, Marind children have been firsthand witnesses to the generations before them, following protocols and enacting ceremonies passed on through generations in order to coexist with their relatives of the forest. 

Marind families are now fighting to sustain their customs, feed their families, and protect the natural forests that are their home, working from their deeply held belief that everyone and everything is interconnected. Exploitation of their forest food systems is destroying the spirit and wellbeing of their communities. The generational act of enculturation is being severed due to the detachment from teachings that stem from their environment. It’s an enforced act of assimilation into a system that bypasses the basic needs of humanity. Unfortunately, this is a common fight Indigenous people are facing throughout the world.

The Indonesian government continues to approve more palm oil projects with increasing impacts on Indigenous Papuans and their lands. Learn more about this important issue and catch a glimpse of the stories of Marind families in Chao’s article published by Mongabay and The Gecko Project.

Forty-five Years and Counting: A Reflection on the Many Accomplishments of the Pacific Peoples’ Partnership

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Victoria Peace Walk-Nuclear Free Pacific by ©Belau-Jurgen Pokrandt

By Art Holbrook with grateful input by Jim Boutilier, PPP’s President Emeritus and Founder of SPPF

Seventy-five years ago in August 1945, the United States Air Force dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Those bombs unleashed a race to build ever more destructive weapons. Several nations turned to the vast Pacific Ocean for these tests. However, vast as it is, the Pacific is far from uninhabited.

The United States began post-war tests starting in 1946 at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands of Micronesia with the residents of the atoll moved to Rongerik Atoll ahead of the first tests. They were left alone there for over a year before an anthropologist from the University of Hawaii found them starving on the barren landscape, and they were moved again. Even today, Marshall Islanders from islands near Bikini have elevated levels of many cancers; the female population has a cervical cancer mortality rate that has been reported to be 60 times higher than comparable mainland U.S. populations.[i] The people of the Marshall Islands have filed many lawsuits in an effort to compensate them for the desecration of their homelands and the damage to their health.

The United States was not alone in nuclear testing in the Pacific. The British, beginning in 1952, tested nuclear weapons in the Gilbert and Ellice Island archipelago which in 1976 became the independent nations of Kiribati and Tuvalu. Amid mounting protests from Pacific Island nations and anti-nuclear activists from many countries at the increasing evidence of nuclear fallout around the world, atmospheric and underwater testing was forbidden under the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963. Despite this ban, nuclear testing continued. The French conducted aerial nuclear tests on Mururoa and Fangataufa in the Tuamotu archipelago of French Polynesia starting in 1966 and underground tests up to 1996.

The remote and seemingly peaceful islands of Micronesia, Polynesia and Melanesia, the three regions that contain so many small island nations of the Pacific Ocean, have remained to this day part of the on-going great power struggle for dominance of the region. With the Japanese pushed out of the islands during World War II, the island nations soon became part of the Cold War as Russia attempted to build influence in Micronesia and later competition between the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the People’s Republic of China as they sought friends and allies in Oceania as each of those nations sought votes in the United Nations. Today, China is active in the region, principally in Polynesia and Melanesia, as they fund major building projects and seek to influence island state governments. Their activity, and their aggressive approach in the region, have generated increasing concern in western capitals.

What does this brief history have to do with the 45th anniversary of Pacific Peoples’ Partnership (PPP)? The Pacific Peoples’ Partnership, or the South Pacific Peoples’ Foundation (SPPF) as it was known from 1975 to 2000, was founded in Canada as an adjunct of a U.S.-based organization, the Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific whose main goal was to protest the nuclear tests. The U.S. link brought suspicion on SPPF because of the American nuclear testing. Recognizing this challenge to SPPF’s identity and desiring more autonomy, the organization soon broke away from its U.S. parent and became an independent organization.

Even as social justice and environmental issues grew in importance in SPPF’s early years, the foundation remained responsive to military issues. It lobbied against Canadian military participation in naval exercises targeting a Hawaiian island sacred to the indigenous people there. It also became a partner with Pacific Islanders in the Pacific Campaign Against Sea-Launched Cruise Missiles. SPPF’s role in that campaign was to alert global peace committees that, while land-based cruise missiles were being curtailed in Europe, those missiles were making their way to Pacific testing sites.

But the early members of SPPF had a more ambitious agenda on their minds than just military testing. From the beginning SPPF’s vision was clear: to increase awareness among Canadians of development issues in the Pacific Islands, and to attempt to connect knowledge of input-and-response networks with the Pacific Islands. As well, the organization developed efforts to connect knowledge and cultural sharing among Indigenous peoples both in Canada and the Pacific with a goal of building solidarity. And, of course, we needed to develop a membership and funding base to support our activities both in Canada and in the Pacific.

SPPF/PPP’s First Executives, (l to r) Phil Esmonde, Randall Garrison, Stuart Wulff and Margaret Argue.

In the early days, SPPF was fortunate to have substantial funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and took full advantage of those funds to carry out ambitious projects in the South Pacific. However, government funding is a double-edge sword. It gave us the wherewithal to carry out programs but we always had to be sure we were within the guidelines set out by the government of the day. Early boards and directors recognized this challenge and began diversifying PPP’s revenue sources, a fortunate piece of advance planning as CIDA funding dried up in the 1990’s. As Stuart Wulff, former PPP executive director from 1991-2000, said, “In a way, the lost CIDA funding liberated us to follow our vision. PPP is now more engaged directly on the ground.”

What has PPP accomplished in our forty-five years?

Andy Nystrom, PPP’s invaluable archivist and research assistant, has compiled a fascinating selection of 45 projects and events highlighted in back issues of Tok Blong Pasifik, the foundation’s news magazine. These initiatives, ranging from artist exchanges to cyclone relief to HIV/AIDS prevention to youth and programs to combat violence against women, demonstrate PPP’s wide-ranging activities and relevance in the South Pacific. Long-time PPP members may celebrate anew our organization’s rich history while new members can learn what a dynamic and richly-rewarding experience being part of PPP can be. We hope you enjoy these glimpses into our archives; it is our goal to make those archives even more accessible in the future. Here are a couple of samples of what you will find there:

 Vanuatu, We Are With You! (2015)

On March 13, 2015, category 5 Cyclone Pam devastated the southern region of Vanuatu. By virtue of ties that run deep between Victoria, Canada and Vanuatu, the shock of this event quickly became very personal for Victoria, British Columbia residents that have family, friends or colleagues in the region. Reports from the country lent compelling urgency to mobilizing support focusing on this unprecedented natural disaster during which access to safe drinking water, food and housing became an immediate priority.

Vanuatu Member of Parliament, Ralph Regenvanu reported at the time, “The total population of Vanuatu is affected, as the cyclone travelled north to south, with the eye going over Shepherds, Efate, Erromango and Tanna. Cyclone Pam has damaged or destroyed 90 per cent of the infrastructure in Port Vila, Vanuatu’s capital and largest town, and damage to the more remote islands and communities is equally devastating.”

In very short order, Pacific People’s Partnership (PPP) flew into action connecting with Canadian government officials, key organizations and individuals in Canada and in the South Pacific. A hallmark fund-raising event, “Vanuatu, We Are With You!”, did much to raise the disaster’s profile, bringing together PPP’s staunch supporters and many new friends of the organization to raise over $11,000. Half the funds were put towards a shipping container filled with much needed supplies for disaster relief and the remainder for rebuilding of schools and hospitals.

Enterprising West Papuan Women Initiative (2013-2015)

WATINI Indigenous Women’s Collective, Wefiani Village, West Papua.

Enterprising West Papuan Women was funded through Development & Peace, LUSH Canada, and other donors between 2013 and 2015. It was facilitated in partnership with the Manokwari-based Institute for Research, Analysis, and Development of Legal Aid (LP3BH) to support livelihood opportunities for women in West Papua and promote gender equality. Under this program, PPP constructed several women’s cooperative centres within Arowi and Mansinam, both in the Bird’s Head Peninsula of West Papua. The centres function as small-scale, co-operative stalls for livelihood development and related skill-building activities such as financial management, strategic planning, proposal writing, and community organizing.

It has been no small feat for PPP just to stay alive for forty-five years … indeed, many NGOs don’t last that long. However, PPP has met many challenges to accomplish that feat. Even more, it has been an achievement to have produced so many significant programs and events for the people of the South Pacific and the Indigenous peoples of Canada in those forty-five years. We look back proudly at our past and with eager anticipation we look forward to what comes next.

I believe it can be said with confidence that PPP has demonstrated its resilience and enduring relevance over the years. We remain Canada’s only non-governmental organizational devoted to the people of the South Pacific and, as such, have a voice of authority that is acknowledged by out federal and provincial governments and by the people of many countries throughout the South Pacific region. In recent years PPP has sent First Nations youth to the islands as part of an expanded mandate that recognizes the historical parallels between Canada’s Indigenous peoples and the peoples of the South Pacific as they work to overcome the challenges of their colonial pasts. While the Covid-19 pandemic has delayed some new developments, we are on the cusp of new and exciting programs that will add more chapters to PPP’s legacy as we look to our 50th anniversary.

Canadian Cabinet Minister Maryam Monsef, Squamish Council Members and PPP Executive Director April Ingham at a PPP/BCCIC Side Event The Longhouse Dialogues as part of a Women Deliver Conference, June 2019.

Prepared by Art Holbrook, PPP Board Member and Chair of the Communications Committee. Art has been a board member at PPP for the last three years. He has traveled to Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu and has developed an affinity for the people of the South Pacific island nations.

New Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise: A Hopeful Sign?

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By Arthur Holbrook, PPP Board Member

Porgera Mine, Enga Province, Papua New Guinea. Image courtesy of: Catherine Coumans, MiningWatch Canada 

Recently, the federal government announced the creation of the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE). The ombudsperson “will be mandated to investigate allegations of human rights abuses linked to Canadian corporate activity abroad. The CORE will seek to assist wherever possible in collaboratively resolving disputes or conflicts between impacted communities and Canadian companies. It will be empowered to independently investigate, report, recommend remedy and monitor its implementation.” (Global Affairs Canada press release, Jan. 17, 2018) An initial focus of the ombudsperson will be extractive industries and the garment sector with additional sectors being added
after one year.

The new government initiative comes at least partly in response to events at the Porgera gold mine in Papua New Guinea. In May 2017 MiningWatch Canada brought two women who had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of the mine’s security personnel to Ottawa to testify about the abuses suffered by local people living near the mine. The women met with a number of parliamentarians, civil servants and media. They also spoke at the annual general meeting of Barrick Gold, the Canadian company that owns the mine.

Catherine Coumans, Asia Pacific Coordinator for MiningWatch Canada, stated that Canada’s, “record of mining in Papua New Guinea is one of social and environmental degradation. It includes destruction of river habitats and fisheries and systemic failures to recognize and deal with human rights abuses. These abuses include the rape of local women by employees of Barrick Gold’s Porgera Mine. … This case highlights a pervasive problem faced by people living around the world who suffer abuses related to mining. It is well known that it is very difficult for poor, marginal and often illiterate people to access justice in many countries where Canadian mining companies operate. This case highlights that we also cannot rely on companies’ own remedy mechanisms to provide equitable compensation in such serious cases. It is high time for Canada to step into this remedy gap by creating an effective remedy mechanism in Canada.” (MiningWatch Canada, 9 May 2017)

Interviewed for this article (29 March 2018), Coumans said it was too soon to tell whether the appointment of an ombudsperson would be an effective tool. The exact mandate of the new ombudsperson has not yet been made public and the proposed budget for the office is less than MiningWatch hoped it would be. Coumans is waiting to learn more about the independence of the new office, specifically regarding its investigative powers with respect to compelling documents and witnesses, and its staffing. If the ombudsperson has an adequate budget and is mandated to operate independently, he/she can prove to be an effective tool. A notice of opportunity for the new position will soon be posted so Coumans expects the position will be filled by the end of the summer.

However, even if the ombudsperson is an effective force against human rights and environmental abuses by mining companies, it will have limited reach in areas of concern to PPP because its oversight will be limited to Canadian companies. For example, it will have little effect on some of PPP’s long-standing partners in Papua New Guinea. The Frieda gold and copper mine, in the headwaters of the Sepik River, is 90% owned by Chinese interests and 10% by Australian ones. The company’s plan to barge ore down the Sepik will bring the social and environmental threats of the mine to the doorstep of our friends and partners.

There are a number of gold and copper mines in PNG but ownership is mostly Australian, South African and, in the case of the Ok Tedi mine, the scene of a major environmental disaster, the government of PNG. PNG, after the British-Australian company BHP ended its ownership, is purportedly now using profits from the mine as part of a remediation program on the river systems affected by the release of mine waste.

Porgera Mine protest- 2017- Enga Province, Papua New Guinea. Photo courtesy of: Catherine Coumans, MiningWatch Canada

About 60 per cent of the world’s mining companies are based in Canada, making Canada the ideal place to pioneer ways to ensure mines respect local people’s rights when operating abroad, according to Julia Sanchez, President-CEO of the Canadian Council for International Cooperation. Pacific Peoples’ Partnership applauds the Canadian government’s initiative, and looks forward to monitoring how it will positively affect South Pacific nations and our partners there.

 

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For 45 years, Pacific Peoples’ Partnership has supported the aspirations of South Pacific Islanders and Indigenous peoples for peace, environmental sustainability, social justice and community development.

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