往深处去:向海洋倾倒废矿渣冲突中的科学、政治和法律

Into the deep:science,politics and law in conflicts over marine dumping of mine waste

关于是否应允许全球采矿业将海洋当作矿渣垃圾场,各国和国际上的审议并不是根据来自以往或现有场址的独立科学数据决定的。严重缺乏对深海环境和海洋倾倒的长期后果的科学知识,也导致没有启动拟议项目的风险预防原则。相反,各国各级政府是按照一个又一个矿山的情况,在有争议的科学主张、相当大的政治经济压力的环境之下对“海底尾矿处理”(STD)作出决策的,而且有时还会违反或修改现有立法来让某个项目得以推进。这些决策引发了复杂的社会过程,它们通常涉及:本地的反对;政治上的冲突;监管和法律上的挑战;强势行业的游说;国际金融机构与资源匮乏国家。“海底尾矿处理”项目在发展中国家引起了争议,如巴布亚新几内亚(Divecha 2002;Shearman 2002a)、印度尼西亚(Edinger 2012;Glynn 2002)、菲律宾(Coumans et al.2002;Coumans and MaCEC 2002),此外还有加拿大(Cultural Survival 1982)和挪威(Kvassness et al.2009)。本文对菲律宾、加拿大和巴布亚新几内亚的案例作了考察,以说明在围绕“海底尾矿处理”矿业项目而形成的冲突中出现的共同主题。

National and international deliberations about whether the global mining industry should be permitted to use the earth’s seas as mine waste dumps are not decided on the basis of independent scientific data from past or existing sites.Nor is a critical lack of scientific knowledge about the deep sea environment and about the long-term consequences of marine dumping triggering the precautionary principle for proposed projects.Rather,governments make decisions on submarine tailings disposal(STD)on a mine-by-mine basis,in a context of contested scientific claims,considerable political and economic pressure,and,sometimes,contravening or amending existing legislation to allow a project to proceed.These decisions provoke complex social processes that commonly involve:local opposition;political conflict;regulatory and legal challenges;powerful industry lobbies;international financial institutions,and resource-hungry states.STD projects engender controversy in developing countries,such as Papua New Guinea(Divecha 2002;Shearman 2002a),Indonesia(Edinger 2012;Glynn 2002)and the Philippines(Coumans et al.2002;Coumans and MaCEC 2002),but also in Canada(Cultural Survival 1982)and Norway(Kvassness et al.2009).This paper examines cases drawn from the Philippines,Canada and Papua New Guinea to illustrate common themes that arise in conflicts surrounding STD mine projects.