Pacific civil society is calling on all non-government organisations and concerned citizens to help support a petition on experimental seabed mining at a crucial time in the Pacific. 

The International Seabed Authority (ISA) in collaboration with the Government of Fiji and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) SOPAC Division is currently hosting an International Workshop on the Exploitation of Deep Sea Minerals, from 29 November to 2 December 2011. 

This initiative reflects the increasing interest and associated concerns on the potential impacts of experimental deep-sea mining and how governments and the ISA will try to regulate this emerging industry. 

In response to governmental efforts to legitimatize experimental seabed mining through the development of legislation, a new Pacific grassroots movement is being launched to express deep concern over steps taken to legitimize and fast-track experimental seabed mining as a development option in the Pacific. 

"We stood together as a region when nuclear proliferation was being pushed by external parties, and we will do so again against new forms of human rights violations and unsustainable development, such as the kind being pushed based on danger-filled extractive industries", says Effrey Dademo from ACT NOW!

We ask you to join us by doing the following:

• First, we would like you to sign the Petition which is attached below;  Send your responses to the following email:  research@pang.org.fj or coordinator@pang.org.fj;

• Second, please promote this petition on your own websites and through your own networks so that we can get as many signatures as we can before the end of February 2012. 

• Thirdly,if there are any new developments on the topic at the national level where you are please do keep us updated. 

The petition which is launched today, 1st of December will be open for signatories until the end of February 2012 when it will be presented to heads of governments of the 15 Pacific countries included in the European Union funded project titled “Deep Sea Minerals in the Pacific Islands Region: a Legal and Fiscal Framework for Sustainable Resource Management”.   

In solidarity,