Measured by the richness of its cultural and biological diversity, Papua New Guinea is the wealthiest of nations. As much as 10 percent of the world’s terrestrial species flourish in its tropical rainforests, and many of these species are found nowhere else. Its extensive coral reefs with over 600 reef-building coral species form part of the Coral Triangle, the area of highest marine biodiversity on Earth. And the human population is also the most diverse on the planet, with 826 Indigenous languages spoken.
The Indigenous people, identified by clans, have customary rights to 97 percent of the land, and they live and breathe their relationship to it. “Our land knows, hears, smells, takes notice, takes care, is sorry or happy and ever-ready to receive us,” says one clan leader, Sama Mellambo. “Each piece of ground, each useful tree of the forest, and whatever else which grows on the land, the fish in the stream or in the sea, has a proprietor. That ownership has been known for centuries and is respected by everyone.”
Everyone, that is, except the current government, which has just passed an amendment to the Environment Act that strips landowning clans of the right to protect their lands and waters from destructive industrial projects.
Sama Mellambo’s clan of about 2,000 people lives along the Rai Coast, southeast of Madang, where the Chinese Metallurgical Construction Company (CMCC) is building a refinery to process nickel and cobalt from its Ramu mine. CMCC plans to extract ore from the inland mine site at Kurumbukari and flush it down an 80-mile pipeline to the refinery on the coast for processing. Once the nickel and cobalt are extracted, CMCC will dump the waste, including arsenic, copper, chromium, cadmium, mercury and high levels of ammonia, through another pipeline out to sea—more than 100 million tons over the mine’s 20-year lifespan. The fragile marine ecology will be disrupted by blasting, construction, and maintenance of the pipeline.
Astonishingly, PNG’s Department of Environment and Conservation approved CMCC’s plan, in violation of its own laws and international conventions, and over the outcry of the Indigenous land-owning clans who stand to lose everything if the coastal waters become contaminated with toxic tailings. Studies indicate that strong ocean currents could carry a toxic plume from the dumping site northwest along the entire northern coast of New Guinea, affecting the economically vital tuna fishery. Thriving Indigenous agricultural communities along the Ramu River between the mine site and the coast also fear that the mine will pollute the water they use for drinking, washing, and agriculture.
The Indigenous clans are fighting back with lawsuits against the government and against CMCC. They are determined to protect the lands and waters that mean life itself to them. Over 7,000 people on the Rai Coast signed a petition stating simply, “There will be no submarine tailings disposal here.” Now they need our help to wrest their landowners’ rights back from a government that has turned against its people.
On Paper Only?
PNG’s Commitments to Indigenous Rights and Environmental Protection
PNG’s Fisheries Management Act: “The rights of customary owners of fisheries resources and fishing rights shall be fully recognized and respected in all transactions affecting their resources.”
Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI): On May 15, 2009, PNG’s Prime Minister pledged that all government agencies would implement the CTI, to “manage our healthy marine environment carefully in the face of the many development pressures… and…achieve our development objectives without further harm to our marine resources.”
UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the Indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdTOBnwlhBA&feature=player_embedded
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