The circle is nearly complete: Regional unity on deep-sea mining |17 August 2026

The circle is nearly complete: Regional unity on deep-sea mining

Earlier this year, Swiss philanthropist Dona Bertarelli and I published an appeal in several newspapers calling for a precautionary pause on deep-sea mining across Africa’s coastal waters and the wider Indian Ocean. We timed it deliberately. The 11th Our Ocean Conference, the first ever held on African soil, was about to open in Mombasa and Kilifi, Kenya. We hoped our region would seize that moment to speak with one voice. At the time, little seemed to change immediately. But I have learned, across many years of advocacy, that seeds planted quietly sometimes take longer than a news cycle to grow. Today, I am glad to say ours has.

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