Monsieur le President de la Republique
Jacques Chirac
Palais de l'Elysee
55, rue du faubourg Saint-Honore
75008 Paris -- France

RE: Your leadership is essential to preserve the Kanaky-New Caledonia coral reef!

Dear President Chirac,

I congratulate you for your strong commitment to conservation and for your interest in Kanaky-New Caledonia, which you demonstrated by your visit there in July. I urge you to take immediate and decisive steps to ensure that the Kanaky-New Caledonia coral reef is successfully nominated and selected as a World Heritage Site in 2004.

One of the healthiest of the world's shrinking coral reef systems forms a protective ring around the South Pacific islands of New Caledonia. The world’s largest continuous barrier reef, it encompasses close to 10 million acres (40,000 sq. km.), where researchers are continually discovering marine species previously unknown to science. The reef system is home to at least 15,000 species of marine animals, including some 800 species found nowhere else on the planet. The islands of New Caledonia are home to some of the world’s rarest and oldest plant species, thanks to their genetic isolation over millions of years. Conservation International chose New Caledonia as one of the top 10 global "hotspots" of in extremely urgent need of protection.

The Canadian mining company, INCO, which is infamous for its terrible treatment of indigenous peoples, wants to build two new nickel mines and a processing facility on the southern tip of Grande Terre. INCO plans to use an experimental hydro-metallurgical process which uses large amounts of sulfuric acid whose vapors can produce acid rain, putting New Caledonia’s forests at risk. Large quantities of waste water containing high levels of suspended and dissolved solids and heavy metals will be piped into the coral reef adjacent to an existing marine reserve. Hundreds of millions of tons of chemically altered solid wastes containing heavy metals will be dumped on land, but torrential rains will likely wash them into the nearby sea. The electrical energy to run the plant will come from coal, making New Caledonia the world’s per capita leader in carbon dioxide emissions.

The Kanak indigenous people are primarily subsistence fishermen and farmers who worry that the INCO mines will completely destroy their way of life. They join all three Kanaky-New Caledonia provincial leaders in agreeing to World Heritage status for the reef.

I am disturbed that past efforts to nominate the Kanaky-New Caledonia coral reef as a World Heritage Site failed. I urge you to intervene to assure a successful nomination in 2004. I also urge you to seek the assistance of the World Heritage Centre to convene a meeting of all stakeholders in Kanaky-New Caledonia so that France can submit a complete nomination to UNESCO by February 1, 2004.