Over 330 green delegates from more than 60 countries, including representatives from several Pacific islands, including American Samoa, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, as well as New Caledonia, met in the Australian capital to adopt an international Green Charter and to formulate a global green strategy.

“The reef campaign will be fought in New Caledonia by the Greens and the Kanak people and in France by the French Greens, who are a coalition partner in the French government,” said Didier Baron, a spokesman for New Caledonia’s green movement, Les Verts Pacifiques.

In order for the coral reef to be accepted by Unesco, a formal request for World Heritage listing can only be made by the French government, who still overseas the territory.

The World Heritage Convention was adopted by Unesco in 1972. To date, there are 690 World Heritage protected sites in 122 countries. East Rennell in the Solomon Islands is the only site listed throughout the Oceania region.

The archipelago of New Caledonia lies in the South Pacific Ocean some 1,300 miles, or 2.5 hours by plane from Sydney, and even closer to neighboring Fiji and Vanuatu. The islands were annexed by Napolean III in the 1850s and still remain an integral part of France, despite an accord signed in 1998 giving New Caledonians, particularly the indigenous Kanak population, semi-independence.

New Caledonia is home to the second largest coral reef after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, measuring approximately 5,000 sq. miles and creating a 16.000 sq. miles lagoon, perhaps the largest in the world.

The island, however, is also home to one of largest nickel reserves, producing about 30 percent of the world’s output. The nickel industry represents nearly 90 percent of the island’s exports. There are also large deposits of cobalt, iron, manganese and other minerals.

“New Caledonia is an island where there are land-based activities which are presenting major threats to biodiversity, especially to the coral reefs,” Drew Hutton of the Australian Greens said at a press conference.

“Nickel mining, in particular, presents a major direct threat to the coral reefs of New Caledonia,” he added.

Opencast nickel mining, and the tailings it produces, has for years been a major contributor to deforestation, erosion, and water pollution. Tons of sediment, often toxic, have found their way into the sea and have caused irreversible damage to the reef.

Unfortunately, there is very little environmental legislation in New Caledonia, or political and economic will as the case may be, to stop the mining companies from their destructive activities.

Multinational companies such as US-based Phelps Dodge and Canadian nickel miners Inco Ltd. and Falconbridge Ltd. all have mining interests in the islands, as well as New Caledonia’s largest mining company, Société Le Nickel (SLN), which is 55 percent owned by the French government.

The Global Greens are hoping that an international campaign will highlight New Caledonia’s environmental problems and help take the necessary steps to protect the future of the island’s coral reef.

“We are attempting to develop this campaign in order to make sure we have proper environmental management in New Caledonia…and to ensure that this wonderful asset which the whole world should treasure, is preserved for future generations,” Hutton said.

The start of the campaign coincides with a recent announcement by the United Nations Foundation that it will fund up to $10 million on a project aimed at reversing the decline in the world’s coral reefs, including in the Pacific islands.

“Coral reef management and sustainability are pressing challenges for the international community,” UN Foundation President Timothy Wirth said.