Resources

Rough Seas: Looming Dangers of the Blue Economy

The ocean’s health is increasingly under threat as a result of human exploitation of its resources, destruction of biodiversity, and pollution from land-based sources, while the situation of climate
change has further exacerbated efforts to protect the ocean. Once considered out of reach economically and technologically, new developments and advancements in technology are making it more
feasible to exploit deep-sea resources, with global powers and Pacific Island governments rushing to carve up the ocean. In 2012, at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio, and in the wake of the green economy discourse, oceans became a global priority for the Alliance of Small Island Developing States (AOSIS), which includes the Pacific Small
Island Developing States (PSIDS). AOSIS and PSIDS launched the Blue Economy concept that made oceans central to their discussions on sustainable development. Although, AOSIS and PSIDS may have initially spearheaded the concept and notion of the Blue Economy, the spirit and hopes underpinning it are already obscured by the industrial ambitions of the region’s colonial powers, as well as new powers who are competing to carve up the Pacific.

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Rough Reas: Looming Dangers of the Blue Economy

New Report highlights Deep Sea Nodule Mining Danger to Pacific Ocean and Island Nations

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Executive Summary

Deep sea mining (DSM) in the Pacific is of growing interest to frontier investors, mining companies and some island economies. To date, no commercial operations have been established, but much seabed mineral exploration is occurring. The focus is on polymetallic nodules in the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the north-eastern equatorial Pacific, and in the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of several nations.

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New Report: WHY THE RUSH? Seabed mining in the Pacific ocean

WHY THE RUSH FOR SEABED MINING?
INTRIGUE, COLLUSION AND INTERESTING BEDFELLOWS

A hard hitting report released today by the Deep Sea Mining Campaign exposes blatant corporate capture of the ISA and the manipulation of Pacific regional decision-making processes by deep sea mining companies and their backers. It calls for a moratorium on the development of deep sea mining (DSM) regulations and the issuing of exploration and exploitation licences in international and national waters.

Deep Sea Mining Campaign Media Release

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Stop the Exploitation of the Deep Sea! Position Paper Of German Civil Society Organizations On Deep Sea Mining

The German government supports a number of industry and research initiatives, both politically
and financially that massively promote deep sea mining. In the face of these trends,
environmental, development and human rights organisations associated in the German NGO
Working Group on Deep Sea Mining are calling for a rethinking and consequently a change
in policy-making. The total raw materials consumption in Germany and Europe must be drastically
reduced. The deep sea has to be protected as humanity’s common heritage. Deep
sea mining is incompatible with the preservation and conservation of this heritage, but is
on the contrary linked to severe disturbances of marine ecosystems, biodiversity loss and
incalculable consequences for the marine world and the people living in coastal areas.

Deep Sea Mining is the opposite of a sustainable raw materials policy!

Position Paper on Deep Sea Mining