Raising awareness on the risks and potential impacts associated with deep seabed mining in the Cook Islands.
International
The Cook Islands Government has issued 3 exploration licences to deep seabed mining (DSM) companies in the Cook Islands. They are moving forwards, despite having very little knowledge about the biodiversity, ecosystems, and ecological links that will be damaged or destroyed during the mining process.
The mining companies doing the exploration are investing a lot of money. They want to mine, and will not be looking for reasons not to. We need independent researchers with deep sea capacity to assess the ecosystems and the potential impacts before any decision to mine, or not to mine, is made.
Te Ipukarea Society is campaigning for a precautionary pause on any commercial DSM until much more research has been done on the environmental impacts. In 2021, along with our sister NGO Kōrero O Te `Ōrau, we were able to visit all of the remote islands of our large ocean state, travelling by traditional voyaging canoe, to raise awareness on ocean health issues and the potential impacts of DSM. We are raising funds to repeat this voyage 5 years on, in 2026, as the end of the mining exploration phase approaches, and the start of commercial exploitation moves close to becoming a reality. You can see more about our campaign here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2704qkIEdI&t=35s
The money will be used to fund a 2 month voyage around the Cook Islands, raising awareness of the voting public on the risks of deep seabed mining, in the hope of applying pressure to the Government to support a moratorium until we know the impacts. If we don't get enough to fund the full activity, we will scale down the geographical scope.
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