Source: New Zealand Herald
Author: Jamie Morton
The Government says it was “too late” to vote to protect deep ocean habitats from the threat of seabed mining at the world’s largest conservation congress because it had already issued prospecting and exploration permits.
New Zealand was one of a handful of nations at the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s World Conservation Congress to oppose a motion which sought a broad range of conservation measures to protect three types of deep ocean habitat from the effects of mining.
The Government has since revealed the permits it had issued which prevented it from voting related to protected areas around the Chatham Rise, stretching 1000km off the Canterbury coast.
For more, go to: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/marine/news/article.cfm?c_id=61&objectid=10869898&ref=rss
