The Pacific island territory of New Caledonia has announced a moratorium on seabed mining for nickel across 1.3 million square kilometers of ocean.

The rare and sweeping move places the French territory among the most restrictive in the world in terms of seabed extraction, and should enable the protection of roughly one-third of the world’s pristine coral reefs.

Lawmakers on the sovereign yet-not independent islands adopted the measure on Tuesday with broad support for a length of 50 years.

“Rather than giving in to the logic of immediate profit, New Caledonia can choose to be a pioneer in ocean protection,” said Jérémie Katidjo Monnier, the local government member responsible for the issue, during the public session according to RFI. 

“It is also a strategic lever to assert our environmental sovereignty in the face of multinationals and a strong signal of commitment to future generations,” he added.

Only 1.5% of all coral habitat in the world is considered pristine, so the protection of the New Caledonian seabed is one of the most robust measures that could be taken to ensure they stay that way.

Certain members of a political party loyal to France have argued that the measure was “disproportionate” and protects huge areas of seabed “we’ve never even seen before” in addition to the known reef locations.

Deep sea mining is extremely controversial. Japan, possibly the nation with the most advanced existing infrastructure for doing so, has the benefit of commanding territorial waters where manganese “nodules” containing copper, nickel, and other battery metals sit on top of the seabed rather than below it.

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However, Japan is also planning to mine deep sea “cobalt crusts,” mud, and hydrothermal vents. Extensive environmental surveys are being planned to coincide with the first large-scale deep sea mining projects ever conducted by a country in her own territorial waters.

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More than 20 nations have expressed great concern over the practice, believing its environmental harms haven’t been fully understood, and have either called for outright moratoriums or strategic pauses to allow proper scientific research to be conducted.

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