We must be wary of undersea mining

Source: The National, Tuesday 17th July, 2012
www.thenational.com.pg/letters

IT is human nature to tell stories and enjoy listening to them. Our stories or folklore are our source of learning.
Many of our stories were orally passed down over the generations to the present day.
They are both good and bad, make or break relationships, families, so­cieties or even a nation.
In a village, lived a story teller who was the eye of the community. He was in sync with nature and could read the signs of times.
He enjoyed his status, perks and privileges that came with it.
One day, the story teller went home and alerted his community of the dangers of tsunami.
He explained to them that a huge wave would come from the east any moment and destroy their entire village.
He told them to flee to the mountains. Without hesitation, everyone obeyed him and fled.
They waited for days without food but soon realised nothing happened and returned home.
After some time, the story teller again warned them to flee to the mountains or be killed by the tsunami.
Again the people took heed of his warning. But there was no tsunami and they returned to the village.
One day, the story teller received a warning of an impending tsunami.
He urged the clan elder to warn the people to flee to higher grounds.
But the leader no longer trusted him. Instead, he grabbed the story teller by the throat and clobbered him to death.
The warning was ignored and the villagers paid the price. The tsunami came and swamped the entire village.
By the time it receded, only a handful of people survived. The survivors lived on to tell us this story.
Today, we are again facing the same threat.
We have been warned by scientists, non-governmental organisation representatives, environmental activists and villagers to stop Nautilus Minerals and the government from carrying out sea bed mining at Solwara-1 area in the Bismarck Sea.
According to an independent environment impact study by University of Alaska’s Prof Richard Steiner, there are many flaws and dangers in undersea mining.
Dr Helen Rosenbaum et al’s re­port, “Out of our depth”, also repor­ted numerous other discrepancies related to this mining venture.
In a paid advertisement in July 2007 signed by Paul Daing, director of Bagabag Community Development Association and Rev Kinim Siloi of the Evangelical Lutheran church, the Bagabag islanders told the government and Nautilus Minerals that the 2,000-plus people of Baga­bag and surrounding outer islands in Madang province were against undersea mining.
They said they were neither consulted nor gave their consent.
“We will not allow this mine to destroy our marine ecosystem which we depend on for our survival and will take appropriate action to protect our way of life, our re­sources, and future generation.
“For 50,000 years, the people of PNG have lived a subsistence lifestyle in harmony with our na­-
tural environment.
“We have the right to determine our own destiny and at its own pace.
“Development in PNG should take place at its own pace and not be imposed by multinational corporations who see our resources as profits.
“The PNG government should put the interest and dreams of its people before that of outside interests.”
There are a several story tellers here warning and calling on the go­vernment to stop undersea mining, which is a first in the world, at Solwara-1 in the Bismarck Sea.
Is the government listening to these people?
Or is the government equally frustrated and angry with the story tellers and, in the process, kills the story tellers and its own people?
Will the government allow un­dersea mining to take place in its waters?
Will the government take heed of the warning and save our nation or to allow sea bed mining to go ahead?

Wenceslaus Magun
Port Moresby

thenational.co

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Nautilus/PNG continue talks

July 13, 2012 · 5:18 pm

Growing opposition to seabed mining

Patrick Matbob | Islands Business

Discussions between Nautilus Minerals and the state of PNG have failed to resolve a dispute that has halted the progress of experimental Solwara 1 seabed mining in PNG waters.

Nautilus has reported that a number of meetings have been held between senior representatives of the two parties and discussions would continue until a conclusion was reached.

Meanwhile, opposition to experimental seabed mining plans is growing in PNG and the Pacific region.

One of PNG’s vocal local environment group, Mas Kagin Tapani Association (known as Makata), has called on Nautilus to stop exploiting the pristine Bismarck and Solomon Seas with its experimental seabed mining. It has also called on the PNG state not to pay Nautilus the 30% equity which it was taking up in the project.

National coordinator for the local not-for-profit group Wenceslaus Magun said: “There is no justification for the PNG government to pay 30% to Nautilus.

“This foreign-owned corporation does not own the resources by birth right. They cannot ask the PNG government to make such a contribution to help develop their experimental seabed mining project.

“By doing so, would imply that Papua New Guineans will remain beggars on our own land: that we cannot determine our own destiny but allow outsiders, particularly the multi-billion dollar corporate industries, to dictate our future.”

The Canada-based Nautilus Minerals is in dispute with PNG as to the state’s obligations to complete the agreement reached in March last year for its Solwara 1 copper project.

Nautilus warned the dispute could delay or cancel the project which it is experimenting with in PNG waters. The company is the first to explore the ocean floor for polymetallic seafloor massive sulphide deposits.

PNG had exercised its option to acquire 30 percent of the Solwara 1 project, located in the Manus basin of Bismarck Sea. As part of the agreement, PNG has to pay its share of the development cost for the mine.

Nautilus said: “Unless and until the dispute is resolved, completion will be delayed or may not occur and Nautilus must continue to carry these costs”.

However, PNG says Nautilus has not met certain obligations on which completion is dependent and that it has breached the agreement. Nautilus, however, has refuted the assertions.

The dispute has resulted in a dramatic 40% plunge in Nautilus shares.

The company also suffered another blow when its partner—European ship builder Harrens—announced it will no longer be able to contribute its full part to the financing of the mining support vessel as agreed in April 2011.

Harrens’ decision is a reflection of the debt crisis in Europe and the tighter bank lending rules and also the depressed shipping market.

Local and regional environmental groups and advocates have continued to oppose the development of seabed mining.

Author of a recent report ‘Out of Our Depth: Mining the Ocean Floor in Papua New Guinea’ Dr Helen Rosenbaum said that very little was understood about the possible impacts of the Solwara 1 project.

“They say they’ve continued to do research that addressed a lot of the concerns that we addressed in that report. But every time we’ve gone back to them to say, well can you share this research with us, we’ve been unsuccessful. So we’re totally unconvinced that this research has been conducted.”

Dr Rosenbaum said the campaign’s concerns were similar for the many projects in which deep-sea mining exploration was starting throughout the Pacific.

Recent discoveries by scientists of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in New Zealand have shown that life was plentiful on the deep seabed despite arguments to the contrary.

The scientists have found more than 5000 samples and footage of never-before-seen undersea volcanoes after a three-week voyage in waters off  Bay of Plenty and north-east along the Kermadec Ridge.

The NIWA scientists studied four different undersea habitats-—seamounts, hydrothermal vents, continental slope and canyons within a 10,000-square kilometre area.

They found that life was plentiful on the seamounts, particularly around the hydrothermal vents. Little life was seen on the surface of the soft sediment on the seafloor of the canyons, but within the sediment were large numbers and many different types of worms.

Meanwhile, it’s been suggested that Pacific Islands Countries and territories wishing to make use of resources on the deep seafloor for economic returns must adopt a ‘precautionary approach’.

This can simply be interpreted as “in any development where there are threats of serious harm to the marine environment, the lack of full scientific data shall not be used as a reason for postponing that development,” said Dr Russell Howorth, director of the SOPAC Division of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC).

But, that particular development, he added should use cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.

The ‘precautionary approach’ has been in existence in Rio Declaration Principle 15 for 20 years but hardly used in the context of bringing economic benefits of the resources of Pacific islanders to improve their livelihoods, said Dr Howorth while addressing Oceans Day at the Rio+20 conference  in Rio de Janeiro last month.

Under Principle 15 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (1992), the application of the Precautionary Approach is defined as: “In order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by states according to their capabilities.

“Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.”

Dr Howorth also revealed a ground breaking advisory opinion by the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea Seabed Disputes Chamber which ruled that the precautionary approach is a legal requirement for states sponsoring deep sea mining activities.

Be wary on experimental sea bed mining

By WENCESLAUS MAGUN

It is human nature to tell story and enjoy listening to stories.  Our stories, or folklore are our source of learning.  Many of our stories were orally passed down from generations to the present day.  Stories are both good and bad.  Stories make or break relationships, families, societies or even a nation.


In a village there lived a story teller.  He was the eye of the community.  He raised alarm and alerted the community about events, places, people and seasons.  This story teller was similar to the PNG’s police helicopter:  “Eye in the sky”.  He cautioned the community to take cover, be on guard or ready to attack. 

He was also always in communication with the nature.  He read the signs of times.  He understood the sounds of the birds, the crickets, the insects in the forest or at the shore and knew exactly what messages they sent.  By their sounds, smell or taste he could tell the enemy was near, or that there would be a death in the community.  He knew when it would rain, or when the dry season would begin by seeing the direction of the rising sun or the moon setting and the stars position in the sky.  

This story teller enjoyed his status. He also enjoyed the perks and privileges that came with it.  He loved going home at dawn or dusk and tell stories of what he saw and did or had discovered over the mountain top or had seen in his dream.  His stories earned him respect.   His people payed great attention and obeyed many of his advice.

One day the story teller went home and alerted his community of the dangers of tsunami.  He explained to them that a huge wave would come from the east any moment from now and will destroy their entire village.  He warned them to take all their belongings and flee into the mountains. 

Without hesitation, the community obeyed his warnings and fled high up into the mountains.  They waited for days without food but soon realised that there was no tsunami and so they returned home.

After some time, the story teller again warned them to flee to the mountain top to avoid being swept away, drowned or be killed in the tsunami.  And again the communities took heed of his story.  Yet again there was no tsunami.  They returned to the village and rebuilt their homes, resettled and continued their normal lives. 

Then one day, it so happened that the story teller received a real warning of tsunami.  He went to his clan leader and urged the clan elder to blow the shell or beat the garamut (dug out wood used for communication) and warned the community to flee to higher grounds.  But the clan leader by then no longer trusted in his story.  He grabbed him by his throat, and clobbered him to death.

The story teller’s warning was thus ignored and the villagers stayed on in their village happy to see their clan leader dishing out punishment to the deceitful story teller.  Sadly, their refusal to take heed of their story teller’s warning came with a price.  Tsunami had arrived.  It’s huge surge of waters engulfed the entire village drowning everything in its path as it swept across the coastline and taking with it countless lives and destroying huge properties.  By the time it stopped, and receded back to sea, the entire village population and all their properties were wiped out.  Tsunami had left only a few handfuls of villagers who by luck or by some form of miraculously intervention survived this ordeal.  These lucky survivors lived on to tell this story to us.

Today we are at the cross roads.

We have been warned by scientists, non-government organisation representatives, environmental activists, and villagers sharing in the bounty of the marine resources in the Pacific to stop Nautilus Minerals Ltd and the Government of Papua New Guinea from their experimental sea bed mining at the Solwara 1 area in the Bismarck Solomon Seas.

According to an independent Environment Impact Study by Professor Richard Steiner, from the University of Alaska, the Environmental Impact Study by Nautilus Minerals Limited has a lot of flaws.  Dr. Helen Rosenbaum et al’s report in the “Out of our depth” also reported numerous other discrepancies related to this experimental sea bed mining venture. (See Nautilus seabed mining experiment falters and www.deepseaminingoutofourdepth.org;www.bit.ly/nodsm;www.deepseaminingoutofourdepth.org;www.bit.ly/nodsm; deepseaminingpacific; twitter.com/NoDeepSeaMining; facebook.com/Save PNG’s endangered turtles; and maskagintapani.blogspot.com, links). 

In  a paid advertisement, in July 2007 signed by Paul Daing, director of Bagabag Community Development Association and Reverend Kinim Siloi of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Bagabag Islanders have called on the GoPNG and Nautilus Minerals Corporations Ltd that the 2,000 plus people of Bagabag and surrounding outer islands in Madang Province are absolutely against undersea mining.

They said that they have not been consulted nor given their consent for the operations of this mine.  Amongst other issues raised they argued that:

“We will not allow this mine to destroy our marine ecosystem which we depend on for our survival and will take appropriate action to protect our way of life, our resources, and future generation.

“For 50,000 years, the people of PNG have lived a subsistence life style in harmony with our natural environment.  We have the right to determine our own destiny and at its own pace.  Development in PNG should take place at its own pace, and not be imposed by multinational corporations who see our resources as profits, and the PNG government should put the interest and dreams of the people of PNG before that of outside interests.”

There are a few story tellers here dishing out warning and calling on the PNG government to stop experimental sea bed mining at Solowara 1 in the Bismarck Solomon seas.

Is the PNG Government listening to the story tellers?  Or is the PNG government equally frustrated and angry at the story tellers and is adamant to kill the story tellers and its own people? Will the PNG Government allow experimental sea bed mining to take place in its waters?  Will the PNG Government for the last time take heed of the warning from the story tellers and save our nation by not allowing Nautilus Minerals Limited to go ahead and carry out its experimental sea bed mining?

Radio Australia, Pacific Beat report on Sea Bed Mining

Call for new PNG government to stop deep sea mining
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/program/pacific-beat/call-for-new-png-government-to-stop-deep-sea-mining/950970

PNG government must not pay 30% equity to Nautilus Minerals Ltd.

Wenceslaus Magun, national coordinator for a local not-for-profit group, Mas Kagin Tapani Association (Makata), is calling for Nautilus Mineral Ltd to stop exploiting the pristine Solwara 1 marine resources in the Bismarck Solomon Seas with its experimental seabed mining.

Mr Magun said, “Nautilus’s chief executive officer, Stephen Rogers, is calling on the PNG government through its State-owned enterprise, Petromin to meet ongoing project costs on a pro-rata basis. The costs are for the grant of the 20-year mining lease in January 2011 amounting to US$47 million. The PNG government should not adhere to this request.”

“There is no justification for the PNG government to pay 30% to Nautilus. This foreign-owned corporation does not own the resources by birth right. They cannot ask the PNG government to make such a contribution to help develop their experimental seabed mining project.”  

“By doing so, would imply that Papua New Guineans will remain beggars on our own land:  that we cannot determine our own destiny but allow outsiders, particularly the multi-billion dollar corporate industries, to dictate our future,” warned Mr. Magun.

Many Papua New Guineans have voiced their concerns that the PNG government has for decades failed to honor the goals enshrined in the preamble of our constitution which calls for equitable distribution and PNG ways and self-reliance. (The National Goal and Directive Principle No.2 and 3 respectively)

Mr Magun said, “Such actions indicate that the PNG government does not remain loyal to protecting and sustainably managing its resources enshrined in our constitution and related documents including Vision 2050. It goes further to show that the PNG government does not care about its own people.” 

“The PNG government should have never given away the exploration license to Nautilus at such an insignificant fee. The fee was for no more than K10,000 and then they granted the company a 20-year mining lease license and to buy back that same property for a 30% equity or equating to K300 million.”

“The PNG government issued the license to Nautilus based on a flawed Environmental Impact Assessment and without ensuring that there were good marine laws in place. This is both unethical and morally wrong.”

“By honoring Nautilus’s request to pay 30% equity to mine the sea floors at Solwara 1, the PNG government will further alienate and disenfranchise its own people.”

He cautioned that such ludicrous decisions will continue to push PNG a rich nation further into the bracket of some of the least developing nations in the world and put the very survival of the Papua New Guinean people at peril.

“Why should Papua New Guineans be made to be spectators in our own land? Why is our government hell bent to make hasty decisions based on weak policies at the expense of the silent majority?  Why should our government make us losers in our own land when we do not choose to? This is absurd!”

“Current mining and petroleum developments in PNG indicate that our country will only get one third of the benefits obtained from our natural resources whilst the developer will leave the country with two-thirds, leaving our resources depleted, devastated, and doomed,” argued Mr. Magun.

Say 'NO' to deep seabed mining

  
Solomon Star News

A senior environmentalist from Papua New Guinea (PNG) has called on the Solomon Islands government and people to stop deep sea mining (DSM) in the country. Wenceslaus Magun, the national coordinator of Mas Kagin Tapani Association in PNG called on responsible authorities to wake up to save lives than to destroy them. Mr Magun said overseas countries knew the loopholes that our countries have therefore want to utilise it for their benefit. He said if land mining operations have destructive effects to our environment which humans are familiar with, how much more is it for the seabed which no proper scientific discoveries and research has been done about it. “We have seen mining companies come and destroy our environment for these minerals. And when they left, people are suffering. "We are people created by God with dignity and we need our resources to survive, not money,” Magun said. He added that it will come to a time when the country will develop and have the human capacity and infrastructure to venture into such development. "Therefore we don’t need foreigners to rip us off and destroy our livelihood." Mr Magun warned that if the ocean resources are destroyed, people's lives too will be destroyed. "Because we pacific island nations depend very much on our sea resources for survival." He further highlighted that there is no baseline study being done for under water mining. He questioned if the country allow DSM, do we have the mitigation capacity and infrastructure to deal with its effects? “Three quarter benefit of these developments will be taken out of this country. "So what is the point of allowing such development to take place when it has devastating effects to our lives forever. "We do not have enough resources and if we destroy then, we are gone.”

Why save turtles in Madang, Papua New Guinea?

Photo: Yadigam beach rangers showing MAKATA's community facilitator Peter Gabu (center front row in blue t'shirt) a leatherback turtle nesting site at Yadigam.

By WENCESLAUS MAGUN

Doing what I like best and getting the best out of it is what pleases me most. I do not want to be seen as just another fart environmental activist wasting my time campaigning to save endangered turtles at the expense of my family, friends, and associates.

On the contrary, I want to remain phlegm, floating Mas Kagin Tapani (MAKATA), a not-for-profit group using whatever limited resources we have to achieve our vision. Instead of being contorted by negative criticisms aimed to dampen my heart, mind and spirit in order to give up my worthy vocation, I intend to translate these challenges into opportunities of hope.

In doing so, I am leading our team to address the plight of the most critically endangered leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) in Papua New Guinea (PNG).

Brief Project Origin

Saving, protecting and restoring critically endangered leatherback turtles in a place, and time where turtles are culturally used for feasts, ceremonial rituals and for daily consumption with very limited resources is the most daunting task.
It demands commitment, and passionate desire to achieve this goal particularly in changing the mindset and attitude of our people.

Most coastal communities visited in PNG in 2006 disclosed that they either originated from a turtle or a marine species. They further raised concerns in the drastic decline of their marine resources and admitted that they themselves have contributed to the decline of its stock.

They realized that if nothing is done to save, protect and restore the turtles, or replenish their marine resources their cultural heritage and significant relationship to turtles, their marine biodiversity and their source of livelihood will soon be gone.

This urgent awakening of survival in the face of existing threats provoked the beginning of the establishment of our Sea Turtle Restoration and Protection Project (STRP) in Madang in mid 2006.

Since then, we continue to strive to reach out to our target communities in Karkum, Mirap, Yadigam, Tokain, Magubem and Kimadi in north coast, and Mur, Baru, Sel, Lamtup, Singor, Teterai, Yamai, Long Island in Rai coast district, and in a few coastal villages on Karkar Island as well as some coastal villages in north coast and in the Bogia district.

We have and will continue to reach out to a broader audience in our nation using the media to inculcate to them a sense of obligation and responsibility to take pride in being custodians of this endangered turtle.

We want them to realise that these turtles have lived for more than 100 million years surviving the era of dinosaurs. These unique turtle species can grow to more than two meters, dive the deepest, weight more than 300 kilograms and swim the furthers. We now know that they are ocean voyagers swimming for 6,000 miles, migrating through Pacific Island countries all the way to feed in California and returning to PNG to lay eggs.

Because of these turtles’ unique characteristics it has put these communities on the global lime light. The world is watching them to see that they also take active role in the global effort to protect and restore this endangered species.

Project need and urgency

The International Union for Conservation Network (IUCN) identified leatherback turtles as the most critically endangered sea turtle species on its Red List. This voice is calling out on all stakeholders to take immediate steps to mitigate any risks that will cause the population of these turtles to dwindle to the point of extinction.

In PNG some effort have been done to prevent their extinction along the Huon coast covering villages of Kamiali, Busamang, Labu Tale and Labu Miti but it has not extended to other provinces in the country.

The Western Pacific population of this turtle species is declining so fast that if nothing is done to prevent this from happening, they could go into extinction before the next decade. The urgent need to stop this from becoming a reality has seen us take immediate steps to address this situation in Madang Province.

Since establishing our project we are slowly transforming the mindset of a people who habitually killed leatherbacks and harvested their eggs for consumption. Some of these communities have appreciated the values of the species and are now protecting and restoring them. But that is still not sufficient. The need to determine turtles nesting population size and develop management strategies for each of the communities engaged in this project demands that additional training is needed. These trainings should enable beach rangers to design, develop, implement and sustain conservation initiatives to maximize hatchling production and on-shore survival.

More communities need to develop their communities’ conservation management plans. With adequate training we are optimistic the communities will nurture a long-term conservation ethic and will become role models in sharing and working with other communities to promote turtle conservation efforts in the region.

That is the fundamental reason urging us to complete establishing CMMAs in our current project sites and to explore and extend to new sites.

Project Sustainability

“Feed a man a fish, and he will go hungry. Teach him how to catch a fish, and he will survive,” is a Chinese proverb that challenges us to ensure that our efforts must have a successful long lasting impact after we exit in the project site communities. We try to achieve this through advocacy and campaign programs complemented with life-long practical skills.

We endeavour to lead them to develop their own conservation area management plans. We want to take them through a process where they are able to identify issues and develop solutions for them. We desire to continue to facilitate debates, discussions, story-telling sessions, link traditional conservation knowledge and practises with modern scientific knowledge and allow the communities to be involved. Through that process we are able to see some communities taking steps to identify their community vision and mission and deal with their issues.

Not all the communities have reached this level of success and so we intend to continue our programs.

Adhoc monitoring and evaluation by our CF’s, our national coordinator and our board members in these communities indicate that many of the community members still want to learn more about turtles, marine eco-systems, turtle tagging and monitoring so that they know more about turtles, and their marine environment and are able to tag and monitor the turtles that come to nest on their beach. We have supplied Karkum community with the titanium tagging devices and clips but we need more of these equipment to supply to the neighbouring villages. With the tagging devices, and other necessary equipment they can be able to sustain their beach monitoring programs.

In addition, we run other community development trainings geared towards broadening their knowledge, and perception of what real and false developments mean. We probe them to see the different risks these developments has on their lives, belief, cultures, economy, and that of their natural resources and how these changes are affecting their lives. We encourage them to see how and what they can and should do to be in control of these situations and their destiny.

We enable them to see a bigger picture of their resources and how it can affect their lives. We do this by enabling them to develop their own resource maps and land use plans. We provide them the tools to map their conservation area map and enable them to achieve this outcome.

We show them documentary films, educational awareness posters, flyers, drama, songs and dances and other performing arts activities to reinforce the messages we impart. In fact we encourage them to create and demonstrate their own expressive arts, songs and dances about turtles and their conservation initiatives to others so that they realise that learning is also full of fun and excitement. We hope to give them some form of incentives to acknowledge their efforts and reward them for their creative initiatives.

We encourage exchange tours. Since the establishment of this project communities in our project sites have played hosts to the National Alliance of Indigenous Sea and Marine Areas (NAILSMA), resource owners in Australia, students from Denmark, tourists, other visiting Pacific island countries dignitaries, students from urban centres, delegation of the South Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP), the Australian High Commissioner to PNG Mr. Ian Kemish and his team amongst others. Karkum villagers in particular have gained so much from the economic spin-offs as a result of their initiative to build their eco-lodge and for being the first community in our project site to establish their CMMAs using CD. These shared experiences have impacted their lives and the lives of their visiting friends.

We intend to invite other skilled resource people to visit these communities and build their capacities on sustainable fishing, eco-tourism ventures, and other community livelihood projects so that these activities will complement the communities’ conservation efforts.

With funding assistance from Santa Monica Seafood and FishWise, we sponsored a micro-credit village banking scheme. This scheme demonstrates an alternative conservation area management option aimed at providing direct incentives to resource owners who take pride and positive steps to take ownership of their project.

We believe strongly that profound environmental stewardship takes place once the communities are convicted that this species truly has significance and therefore must be protected and restored. Only then can they take positive steps to save them from their loss.

We are optimistic that when this happen not a vestige of their habitual killing of this species for protein will remain in these communities. We hope to leave a legacy that these small steps will see a gradual increase in the leatherback turtle population in our country and in the region.

Project Partners

To become more effective, vibrant and dynamic we have become active members of the Centre for Environmental Law and Community Rights (CELCOR) group on 20th September 2012. We continue to network with other international and local NGOs including Turtle Island Restoration Network, Raymond Palangat and staff of World Bank-PNG, Cathy Lee and students and staff of Port Moresby International School, Professor Richard Steiner, Dr Helen Rosenbaum et al, South Pacific Regional Environment Program, the Mineral Policy Institute of Australia, Oxfam Australia, Friends of the Earth Australia, The Nature Conservancy, WWF-Western Melanesia, Mine Watch - Canada, Global Greengrants Fund, United Nations Development Program, East Niu Britain Eksen Komiti, Wide Bay Conservation Group, Partners with Melanesia, GILDIPASI Planning Committee, Duergo Community Development Association, Karkar District ELCPNG Bagiai Circuit Youth and indigenous people of Rai coast, and Bagabag Island.

We hope that these small steps we are taking in collaborating with our key stakeholders and partners will go a long way in saving and preventing cultural heritage, other terrestrial and marine species, and habitat and biodiversity loss.

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