Tonga firms oppose deep sea mining

NUKU’ALOFA -Tonga civil society strongly opposes deep sea mining and reaffirms a total ban on all mining activities, saying the region including the kingdom needs to act.

That position was made clear during the recent Pacific Blue Line webinar hosted by the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG) and partners, a series that advocates against threats of deep sea mining.

Between 2019 and 2020, groups in Tonga were pushing for a moratorium on deep sea mining when mining company DeepGreen Minerals started a heavy public push for the approval of licenses.

“There seems to be a lot more messaging from Deep Green”, recalls Pelanatita Kara from the Civil Society Forum of Tonga (CSFT), talking about the Canadian mining company.

With their “engagement and pushing on a space, there was a feeling that we need to actually re-engage our people nationally.”

Kara said national consultations far and wide within the kingdom had strongly opposed deep sea mining in Tonga’s waters, and it had formed the basis of a national position on a ban by the end of 2020.

“The message is: people in the island don’t want any deep sea mining activity in the EEZ, nor the area. So that was the loud message that came through.”

A veteran civil society leader, Siotame Drew Havea, noted that precedence for protecting the environment was set early, way back in 1845 at the founding of modern Tonga, when Tupou I united the kingdom under Christianity.

“I think what’s interesting about Tupou I is that he valued the creation of God and he sort of saw that God has gifted the people of Tonga with this great environment, great soil, the ocean in the abundance of livelihood for people to live on.”