Blog Entry

Ban Seabed Mining! Embracing Our Culture

Jamie Kneen

National Program Co-Lead

Show your support and solidarity with The Kono Community in Papua New Guinea! 

On July 29th and 30th the Kono community in the West Coast Barok Area of the Namatanai District, New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea will stage the Cultural Shark Calling Festival as a form of protest against deep sea mining.

The Experimental Seabed Mining Project, which has lost the Papua New Guinea a massive K375 million kina, will not be entertained by coastal communities. We will not allow the government to force this project on us and to destroy our environment and way of life.

What You Can Do

Send a solidarity message to the Kono Community, it could be a written message or a photo of yourself with a sign that says, ‘BAN SEABED MINING’. Please send messages to: [email protected]

We welcome you to share the above image through your networks and via your social media channels.

We invite you to sign the Pacific Blue Line Statement in calling for a total ban on deep sea mining.

By embracing their culture and traditional governance systems in caring for and protecting their lands, waters and oceans, The Kono Community will be reminding the PNG Government and the pro-seabed mining industry that they are not welcome in New Ireland, Papua New Guinea, and the Pacific.

The Kono Community demands that the Papua New Guinean government cancel all existing licences across the Bismarck and Solomon Seas in Papua New Guinea and to make a stand with the Pacific Blue Line Against Deep Sea Mining in calling for a total ban on deep sea mining in national and international waters.

Yours sincerely,
Jonathan Mesulam
Director, West Coast Development Foundation, and member of the Alliance of Solwara Warriors

This has been made possible through partnership with the following organisations:
Alliance of Solwara Warriors, West Coast Development Foundation, Papua New Guinea Conference of Churches, Caritas PNG, Centre for Environmental Law & Community Rights (PNG), Bismarck Ramu Group, Deep Sea Mining Campaign, MiningWatch Canada, Ozeanien-Dialog, and Oceans for Generations