There’s good news to celebrate with our campaign partners in New Caledonia! A French court ordered a temporary halt to construction of the Goro Nickel plant in New Caledonia, on environmental grounds. Since 2003, Global Response has organized several rounds of letter-writing in support of the indigenous Kanak people who oppose the Goro project.
At stake is the magnificent New Caledonia coral reef ecosystem, which could be irreparably harmed by toxic effluents from the mine. Kanak representative Jacques Boengkih also reported that scientists from CEREGE (European Center for Research in Geoscience and Environment) reviewed aspects of the Goro Nickel project and rejected Goro’s plan to dump mine effluent into the sea through a pipe. The experts found that the effluent would contain unacceptably high levels of manganese.
