Protect New Caledonian Forest, Reef and Indigenous Rights

Please Note: This action has been discontinued.

Thank you for your support!

Here's an urgent appeal from indigenous leaders and environmentalists in New Caledonia, who are fighting for TIME to prevent irreversible destruction of ancient forests and contamination of one of the world's most magnificent coral reefs. Please send emails and faxes to New Caledonian and French authorities, supporting Kanak chiefs' demands for a 2-year extension on the comment period for an Environmental Impact Assessment on the proposed Goro nickel mine. The government's 30 day comment period is insufficient for a project of this magnitude, and the EIA must be made available in English (currently only in French) so that it can be properly reviewed by independent scientists. Your faxes and emails are critical at this moment!

Thanks,

Paula Palmer

Letter of Appeal from New Caledonia

Concerned citizens and indigenous Kanak leader of New Caledonia are battling fear and a neo-colonial regime to stop large-scale nickel mining projects in the Pacific island archipelago, which is a French Overseas Community. New Caledonia's physical isolation and its tropical climate, with extremes of precipitation from long droughts to intense cyclones with high rainfall, as well as it's unusual near-toxic metal-rich soils, have contributed to an extraordinary biodiversity and unusually high endemism. New Caledonia's coral massif, which is the second largest in the world after the great barrier reef, has just been fomally recommended to the United Nations for listing as a World Heritage site. While that process may take years to complete, this biodiversity hotspot is under immediate threat. A number of multinational mining corporations, Canadian, Russian, Australian, and American are vying for the exploitation rights to the world's largest and richest laterite nickel reserves -- the very soils that have cradled such
extraordinary flora and fauna. Canadian mining giant INCO is leading the way.

INCO, Canada, in partnership with a locally created company, Goro Nickel, and the French government which has 15% of the shares, has already built a pilot sulfuric acid leachate plant at the extreme south of the island -- at the beginning of the south-easterly trade wind axis which runs the length of the long, skinny, mountainous island, in a quasi-uninhabited region. The hydrometallurgical process is experimental and involves the use of large amounts of sulfuric acid, the vapors of which can produce acid rain thus
putting all of New Caledonia's forests at risk. Large quantities of water, containing high levels of dissolved solids, heavy metals, etc. will be piped into the coral reef adjacent to an existing marine reserve. The hundreds of millions of tons of chemically altered solid wastes, containing many heavy
metals not extracted, will be dumped on land where ultimate transmission to the nearby coral reef is assured in spite of claims to the contrary. The electrical energy to run the plant will be produced by a 180 megawatt coal-fired plant. The coal, with a 1% sulfur content, will be imported from Australia. This plant, together with another 300 megawatt coal-fired plant planned by miner Falconbridge Canada, will assure that New Caledonia, by an enormous lead, will become the world's per capita leader in carbon dioxide
production. Who will pay this carbon dioxide debt? Nobody seems to have the answer, but given the approach of the Rio+10 conference coming up in September, this question is very poignant.

On November 21, 2001, nine Kanak Chiefs, representing the entire Kanak population from Djubea Kapune, the region of INCO's proposed mine, presented Christian Paul, French Secretary of State for Overseas Territories with a detailed petition outlining their concerns about the mine and their demands with respect to INCO's proposed project. Their concerns cover social, cultural, legal, technical, economic and environmental aspects of INCO's proposed mine. The Kanak leaders demanded a two year delay in the permitting of the mine so that a public inquiry into socio-cultural impacts could be conducted, and to allow enough time for an independent environmental review of INCO's proposal (See www.miningwatch.ca for a copy of the Kanak document).

INCO released its three volume Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) on February 4, 2002. The people of New Caledonia were then told they have only have until March 7th to provide public comments. International scientists have offered to provide comments on the EIA. However, Inco did not put the EIA up on their web site until the evening of the 7th and it was in French only. On February 7th and 8th, Allan Stubbs of Inco (VP Government and Public Affairs) categorically told MiningWatch Canada that an English language version does not exists. The consultants who prepared the EIA have since, on February 18, told MiningWatch Canada that they did prepare an English version of the EIA.

The provincial government of the Southern Province has already made public statements that it will approve the project on March 7th, 2002. The project will be benefiting from a 100% tax shelter for ten years and the near absence of locally-applied environmental laws.

Please write to the president of the government of New Caledonia and to the French Minister of the Environment. Ask for an immediate extension of the public comment period on the Goro Nickel Mine from one month to 2 years. Write your message in support of indigenous leaders and concerned citizens of New Caledonia who have requested this delay in order to conduct an independent scientific assessment of the project. The potential damage from the Goro mine to New Caledonia's ancient forest, magnificent coral reef and indigenous lands warrants careful scientific study and citizen participation in the decision-making process.

Fax or Email

Mr. Pierre Frogier, Présidence du Gouvernement de la Nouvelle Calédonie

Fax : Int'l code + 687 24 65 50

Mr. Yves Cochet, French Minister of the Environment

ycochet@verts.imaginet.fr and

FAX : Int'l code + 33 1 42 19 11 23

Mr. Thierry Chaverot, Office of the Environment, Southern Province

Fax : Int'l code + 687 24 32 56

NOTE: Please send copies of your fax/emails to: dakuwaqa@lagoon.nc

Paula Palmer, Executive Director

Global Response Network

P.O. Box 7490

Boulder CO 80306

USA

TEL: 303-444-0306

FAX: 303-449-9794

Email: paula@globalresponse.org

Website: www.globalresponse.org

• 116 Human Rights
• 183 Environment