Pacific News Briefs

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The world is headed for the Pacific to mine, an advocate against seabed mining says.

The International Seabed Authority (ISA) Council met in Kingston Jamaica last week  to continue the process of forming mining rules.

The ISA Assembly meets this week.

It comes as The Metals Company chief executive Gerrard Barron told Reuters he plans to apply for a mining license in the Clarion Clipperton Zone through Nauru this year, after enacting what is known as the two-year rule.

A provision under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) that, once triggered, means if regulations are not adopted within two years, mining licenses could be granted under whatever rules exist.

Nauru triggered the rule in 2021 that lapsed in July of last year.

Deep Sea Conservation Coalition’s, Phil McCabe, said he did not think the true gravity of the decisions at the ISA are fully appreciated.

He said mining could start in 2026 with no regulations.

"There's a train that's loaded with the world and it's headed towards the Pacific, unless it's stopped it's going to descend in the waters of the Pacific in a matter of a year or three [years]," McCabe said.

There is a growing list of nations and territory's calling for a moratorium on deep sea mining.

American Samoa has put in place a moratorium on deep sea mining this past Thursday by an executive order from Governor Lemanu Peleti Mauga.

Hawai'i introduced legislation earlier last month also banning seabed mining.

With others pushing for deep sea mining to happen McCabe said nations are falling into two camps at the ISA meeting.

"In a diplomatic way it's quite a tense atmosphere," he said.

"Countries have basically said they don't want any mining to begin without rules and regulations in place, but rules and regulations are not in place and if this company goes ahead and submits their application that's going against the view basically of just about the entire world."

OLYMPIC SURFING

As French Polynesia's Olympic surfing competition begins at the weekend, it will be the only event to host athletes in a floating hotel.

The accommodation is provided by the luxury liner "Aranui 5", for the whole duration of the surfing competition, to be held on the iconic site of Teahupo'o between 27 and 30 July.

What is now the PARIS 2024 Olympics' only floating hotel and Olympic village usually carries passengers and freight.

The choice for a floating Olympic Village was made because, in this part of Tahiti, there was no adequate facility located close enough to the competition site.

The 28 international competitors and their delegations have now arrived and settled onboard the Aranui 5.

Onboard, they will be treated to French and Polynesian cuisine, as well as local Polynesian dances every night.

The favorites in the competition are also home-grown: in the female competition, Vahine Fierro, who made history in May and won the Tahiti leg of the World Surfing League's competition, has been surfing on the Teahupo'o wave since she was 15.

Kauli Vast, in the men's event, also grew up on the world-renowned site.

FIJI RUGBY FALLS SHORT

France claimed their first Olympic Games sevens rugby gold medal with a 28-7 win over Fiji at the Stade de France Saturday morning.

Star French player Antoine Dupont scored two late second half tries and helped the side create history in front of a partisan 69,000 crowd.

Fiji, who were chasing a three-peat attempt at the Paris Olympics, paid the price for giving away critical penalties in the second spell as France took control, settling for silver in the end.

Fiji's Josaia Raisuqe said it was a good final, but Fiji made some mistakes.

"Maybe because [France] were playing on their home soil, it was a special motivation for them. But we must just keep on going.

"We gave our best in this final. But when it comes to the end, one is going to win and one is going to lose, so we accept that."

He said the medal is silver but "still it is important to me".

"Maybe we are going to come back in the next Olympics and we will give everything.

"I have silver on my neck.

My family and country is happy now. My mum and dad brought me into this sport and I am thankful for that."

SOLVING THE CLIMATE CRISIS

Climate justice and gender equality cannot be achieved separately, a Pacific women's conference heard this week.

Marshall Islands President, Dr Hilda Heine, said the climate crisis faced in the region and the world would make gender equality more difficult to attain.

"For example, we know that we cannot have gender equality without climate justice, and vice versa," Heine told delegates at the the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women gathered in the Northern Pacific for the first time in 40 years.

"Our aspirations are shared," Heine said.

"We have convened on Majuro because of one of those aspirations is the empowerment of Pacific women and girls in all their diversities and ultimately to reach gender parity in our region.''

Heine said that for gender parity to be achieved, every Pacific woman's ability, talent dreams would need to be harnessed.

"We must draw on the resourcefulness of Pacific women, rich in our diverse cultures and traditions, to map a way forward for us, tapping into our region's diversity and creativity to find solutions that are embedded in our Pacific philosophies and world views,'' she said.

"We know that the climate crisis will make achieving gender equality even harder - and that we cannot solve the climate crisis without gender equality.''

Heine said women were often hit fastest and hardest by climate impacts.

"They are the first responders of the family, responsible for ensuring that the family is taken care of and healthy,'' she said.

"As climate change brings droughts, they are charged with securing water; when children or the elderly are affected by extreme heat, it is women who are the primary caregivers.

"In the Marshalls, where women often participate in the informal economy through the production of handicrafts, for example, we know that the material used for those handicrafts are at risk as sea levels rise and salt water inundates our arable land.

"Women are also central to the solutions to the climate crisis.''

PNG VIOLENCE

A lack of manpower and resources is hampering police efforts to restore law and order after a massacre in Papua New Guinea.

Local media are reporting 26 men, women and children were killed after violent attacks on three remote villages in East Sepik over what is believed to have been a land dispute.

According to the United Nations, the death toll could rise to 50 amid reports that houses have been torched and over 200 villagers have fled the area.

RNZ Pacific correspondent in PNG Scott Waide said local police are simply outnumbered.

"In Angoram district police presence is very limited — in some cases there are just one reserve policeman, or two, in locations," he said.

"So it's difficult for that one person or two people to maintain law and order."

The National newspaper report police saying the killings and burning of houses took place at Tambari village, 20km from Angoram town, starting on 16 July.

East Sepik Governor, Allan Bird, told ABC that the violence in PNG "is getting worse" and the "lack of justice is a problem".

The province's acting police commander James Baugen and senior health officials visited the scene last weekend.

Baugen said two locals found at the site were told to leave immediately. The other villagers had fled.

The police commander also reported sightings of mutilated bodies, including infants and children, and said due to the state of the corpses, proper burial was unlikely.

(Source: RNZ Pacific)