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Four out of five people in this country have left. Here’s how the government is planning to bring them back
The Cook Islands has faced a citizen exodus. But could the industry poised to save the country also destroy its way of life?
Published 20 April 2023 5:44pm
Updated 21 April 2023 2:01pm
By Lucy Murray
Source: SBS News
Image: The Moana Minerals exploration vessel in Avatiu Harbour, Rarotonga.
The Cook Islands is a postcard paradise. Resorts cover the coastline of its main island, Rarotonga. White sand beaches lead into the azure waters of the coral lagoon, where tourists stand shakily on paddleboards.
But head out of Rarotonga to one of the outer islands, and it’s clear this is a country in flux. Dozens of houses sit abandoned, a sign of rapid population decline.
Currently, 80 per cent of Cook Islanders live and work in Australia or New Zealand.
Children fish with traditional poles in Rarotonga. Credit: Lucy Murray
Mr Ariki's children, and royal line, have moved to Australia seeking higher-paying jobs.
“I am the only one here, left on the island.”
To reverse the population decline, Prime Minister Mark Brown is pushing for the country to embrace a new, high-tech industry, known as deep sea mining.
“We don't know what the future holds in terms of the tourism industry globally and regionally. The need to diversify has taken on greater significance, much more importance,” he told SBS News.
His government has issued exploration licences to three companies. The permits are not a green light to mine, but they allow companies to determine if the industry is viable.
“People go where the money is, and that's what we're seeing currently,” Mr Brown told SBS News.
“What we see is, if we develop an industry here in our country that is viable and sustainable, we will attract back those people (who left) and we will keep the people in country … there's no doubt, if a country is to prosper, it must also have people.”
How could this multi-billion-dollar industry help?
Deep sea mining effectively means dredging the seabed, five kilometres below sea level, for golf-ball sized rocks, known as polymetallic nodules.
These contain cobalt, copper, manganese and nickel: four commodities increasing in demand and price. They are used to make batteries and are considered essential to the green energy transition.
“We can do our part to help the world. These minerals not only provide an opportunity for income for our country, but it also provides an opportunity to contribute to the world's push to green energy and to reducing carbon emissions,” said Mr Brown.
Moana Minerals CEO Hans Smit (right) shows the Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown sonar mapping technology. Credit: Lucy Murray
Moana Minerals CEO Hans Smit, whose company has an exploration licence for 20,000 square kilometres of ocean, has said, “Just in the small area where we are looking, it's several billion dollars’ worth of metals … five to ten billion dollars. If not more.”
What’s the true cost of deep-sea mining?
The billion-dollar pay cheque comes with a catch. Scientists say the dredging of the seabed can create underwater dust storms, which drift on currents, choking deep sea creatures.
One of the animals under threat is worms. The wriggly creatures are vital scavengers and deep sea biologist Malcom Clark says without them, the seabed would be polluted with dead carcasses.
"The issue that scientists have to grapple with is trying to quantify how many of those animals are likely to die,” he told SBS News.
The Cook Islands is planning to mine abyssal plains for manganese nodules. Credit: ICUN
The Cook Islands is an important breeding ground for humpback whales.
Dr Clark is concerned the mammals’ communications could be overpowered, or “masked” by loud clanging noises created, when nodules are brought to the surface in a steel pipe.
“Water is an excellent conductor of sound, so we're talking about that noise and that potential masking, if it's too loud, extending over thousands of kilometres,” he said.
Local transport on Aitutaki, the second largest island in the Cook Islands. Credit: Lucy Murray
Why are people calling for a moratorium on mining?
Uncertainty has prompted to sign a petition calling for a ten-year moratorium on deep sea mining. They argue the practice is too risky, given the ocean's role in absorbing carbon emissions.
One signatory is Cook Islander and marine scientist Jacqueline Evans. She is worried her government is rushing its decision and relying solely on data provided by resource companies.
“We've been asking for independent research to be done. We've been asking for other institutions to be invited into our waters to come and do research,” she said.
“The ocean has already got pressure on it … there's plastic pollution, there's overfishing. And to have deep sea mining, it's just going to compound all these issues.”
Jacqueline Evans is an outspoken critic of the seabed mining. Credit: Lucy Murray
What can be learned from elsewhere?
Deep sea mining is not conducted anywhere else in the world.
If the Cook Islands decides to grant mining licences, it will be the first nation to do so.
But, it is not the first nation to try deep sea mining. Mexico had issued an exploration permit to a resource company but decided not to go ahead with a mining permit, citing concerns for turtle habitat.
The Latin America nation is now being sued for US$2 billion for alleged losses of future profits. Separately, a Mexican legal tribunal found the government's refusal was unlawful.
Ms Evans said she is “very concerned” about a similar scenario in the Cook Islands because the company involved in that dispute, Odyssey, is a contractor and shareholder of CIC, one of the three beneficiaries of exploration licences.
She believes there is no room in the legislation for her country to decide not to issue a licence because it has changed its mind, which could open up the possibility of the Cook Islands being sued.
However, an Odyssey spokesperson told SBS News it has “no legal right to sue in the Cook Islands.”
The Cook Islands government said mining permits will not be granted until resource companies prove it can be done safely and it believes it is safeguarded from any litigation if "acting lawfully and not unreasonably".
A fisherman untangles his net on Aitutaki, Cook Islands. Credit: Lucy Murray
Is it worth the risk?
The Cook Islands Prime Minister seems certain mining is the right path for his country.
He even climbed aboard the Moana Mineral ship for its maiden voyage, spending three days at sea watching the company’s surveyors map the seabed.
“(Our people), they've moved overseas to work in industries that pay them more money, such as in the horticultural industry in New Zealand, picking apples. Our nodules, these are our golden apples. If developed properly, we have an opportunity for our people then to collect our own apples,” he told SBS News.
It's the next generation of Cook Islanders that will benefit or bear the brunt of deep sea mining. Credit: Lucy Murray
“Pragmatism is by nature a necessity when you live in a small island state,” he said.
“To get ahead in this type of environment, we have to make bold decisions sometimes and we have to lead the way.
"There are sometimes decisions that you make that are not popular decisions, but they are decisions that I feel are based on doing the right thing.”
Back on land, Jacqueline Evans said the ocean is too sacred and too important to livelihoods to risk.
“The Global South and the Pacific. We haven't got a good track record with our logging and our mining, you know, those kinds of activities. Yet we're thinking that we're going to actually do this perfectly and that we're going to succeed,” she said.
“There will be an environmental impact. The question is how bad will that impact be?”
This article has been updated to clarify Odyssey's position that it does not have the right to sue in the Cook Islands.
This story is the first in a two-part-series produced in collaboration with Al Jazeera and supported by the Sean Dorney Grant for Pacific Journalism through the Walkley Public Fund:
