They want to start mining this unique island paradise!

Mining this beautiful, historic island again could ruin it forever - the locals want eco-tourism instead. Can we help them save one of the most fascinating places we've ever visited? Locals vote for eco-tourism instead!

The prevailing explanation for Makatea’s phosphate deposits dates to long before the island was uplifted. For 50 million years, Makatea existed as a low, flat-topped reef platform, dotted with shallow-water ponds that were most likely home to thick mats of cyanobacteria. These still exist today in some neighboring atolls, and local people call them kopara. The bacteria sequester phosphate from the seawater, and over millions of years, billions of generations of bacteria lived, died, and left their phosphate behind to accumulate in the relatively calm water of the ponds. Once the island was lifted, rainfall began to erode its limestones (which formed from corals and hard-shelled animals). This eventually created a karst landscape filled with holes and caves. Geologists estimate that 150 to 200 meters from the top of the island have already washed away completely, dissolving like sugar over hundreds of thousands of years. But phosphate is virtually insoluble in fresh water, so as the rest of the island’s surface material flowed away, the phosphate sands and rock nodules kept slipping downward, filling up cracks and holes in the landscape beneath. When miners came, all they had to do was shovel it out.

And they did just that for just under 60 years. Creating a landscape of pot holes, and leaving behind abandoned buildings, machinery and a mess of tangled, rusty metal for the locals to clean up or live with.

In 2014, Australian company SAS Avenir Makatea received an exclusive research permit to develop a new phosphate mining project. In 2016, the company applied for a mining concession, which triggered a government review of French Polynesia’s entire mining code. The project has remained in limbo ever since—neither approved nor rejected. The deadline for an official decision keeps getting extended, so no work has begun, and the campaign to prevent the mine is ongoing.

SAS Avenir Makatea’s plan is to work within the old extraction zone, removing the small amount of remaining phosphate sand, as well as a thin layer within the rock itself. To achieve this, miners would need to break the rock down, something the CFPO never did, effectively lowering the area by several meters. In theory, the resulting gravel could then fill some of those notorious holes. The proponents call it rehabilitation; the opponents call it a disaster.

The new development would mean building roads, a new port, and an airstrip, making the island more accessible. It would require heavy machinery and would kick up plenty of dust. It would also create jobs, though it’s unclear who they would go to. And it’s hard to imagine how ecotourism, which both sides support, could coexist with so much industrial activity on such a small island.

If you want to help the locals save their island from the big mining companies - sign the petition here:
https://www.rainforest-rescue.org/pet...

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To find out more:
   • Makatea residents choose between resu...  

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