WHAT WE
 WANT  TO ACHIEVE

Our goal.

PTWC calls for an urgent moratorium on all prospecting and mining for oil and gas, diamonds and heavy mineral sands until a comprehensive, all-in-one Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of this coast is completed. Guided by fundamental rights enshrined in our Constitution, this document evokes applicable environmental and mining statutes, and enforces the correct oversight of mining authorisations.

An SEA would provide a context-specific, sustainability led and integrated document that guides the decision-making of the DMRE and DFFE with correct and timely information on the impact of mining in the area contained in an application. An SEA would detail existing natural resources and biophysical aspects; identify ecologically and culturally sensitive areas; interrogate current land use types; and speak to indigenous, farming, fishing and recreational communities who rely on and utilise these areas. West Coast communities, already under significant pressure, cannot be further impoverished in pursuit of short term benefits touted by mining houses in what is an already critically biodiverse, water scarce and sensitive environment.

An SEA would provide a vital tool to promote sustainable development, which the DMRE and DFFE are mandated to strive towards. Without an SEA, each mining application is considered ad hoc and in a vacuum, which serves the mining interests and no-one else.