Sustainable Development Goal 15 relates to the protection, restoration and promotion of the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainable management of forests, combating of desertification and halting and reversing land degradation and biodiversity loss.
Goal 15 has several objectives that are relevant to our sector:
- Conserve and restore terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems
- Ensure conservation of mountain ecosystems
- Protect biodiversity and natural habitats
We aim to contribute to Goal 15 in two key ways:
- We believe the responsible development of seafloor minerals can, and will, replace proposed terrestrial mines in fragile ecosystems in mountain, forest and alpine regions. While it is critical that seafloor mines are developed in a manner that also protects biodiversity and natural habitats, we believe that selective harvesting will make this possible, and will have the added benefit of displacing lower grade, higher risk mines in fragile terrestrial ecosystems
- We are working hard to develop bioextraction technology for both seabed mining and terrestrial mining to minimize or eliminate the generation of tailings (waste liquid and crushed ore) that results from traditional mineral processing. This would significantly reduce the impact, and future risk of impact, to terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems which is currently occurring as a result of long term terrestrial tailings liabilities.
As we develop a presence in host nations, and scale up our collaboration efforts, we will develop a clear pathway to the implementation of these goals, including specific time-bound objectives. We anticipate commencing reporting against specific objectives as part of the 2023 annual report.
