The Pacific Islands Association of Non-Government Organisations (PIANGO) has called on regional governments to recognize the risks of seabed mining.
The call comes as Pacific governments met in Tonga this last week to discuss their hopes of exploiting minerals on the ocean floor.
PIANGO executive director Emele Duituturaga says seabed mining threatened fisheries, marine environments and ocean livelihoods.
As well as calling for a ban, Duituturaga asked governments not make hasty decisions about taking up seabed mining.
She says If mining was the panacea to the economic issues of the Pacific, we’d have solved all our problems long ago.
Instead the environmental and social impacts of mining have made our peoples poorer.
