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The Guardian - Back to homeThe Guardian

Pacific plunder

Who profits from the mass extraction of the region's natural resources? A series from Guardian Australia

27 June 2021

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  • Eritara Aati Kaierua and his sister, Nikora Kaierua. He was killed while he was working as a fisheries observers. Over fishing in the Pacific.

    A death at sea and why answers are so difficult to find

    Since 2009 at least a dozens observers have turned up dead or disappeared with little explanation. So what is happening to these workers and why?

25 June 2021

  • What do we do about the problems that arise from extractives industries in the Pacific?

    How do we stop the plunder of the Pacific? A panel of experts give their solutions

    From education to legal reform, at the close of the Guardian’s Pacific Plunder series, leading Pacific thinkers offer solutions

23 June 2021

  • Deep Sea Mining. Pacific project.

    Mining’s new frontier: Pacific nations caught in the rush for deep-sea riches

    Miners are pushing hard to extract metals from the ocean floor, but there is mounting concern about what it might do to the marine environment

19 June 2021

  • Eritara Aati Kaierua’s wife Tekarara, with their four children Robert, Aatii, Elizabeth and Tutu at his grave in Tarawa, Kiribati. The family have been left without their father after he was murdered on a fishing boat. Murder, fishing, over fishing.

    Death at sea: the fisheries inspectors who never came home

    Eritara Aati Kaierua is one of more than a dozen observers who have died since 2009. A year later his family are still waiting for answers

16 June 2021

  • Three fishing boats at Solomon Islands.

    The mice that roared: how eight tiny countries took on foreign fishing fleets

    Eight Pacific countries created a revolutionary system that brings in $500m a year and prevents the overfishing that blights other regions

13 June 2021

  • Fishing illustration for Plundering the Pacific

    Why the world’s most fertile fishing ground is facing a ‘unique and dire’ threat

    China’s Pacific fishing fleet has grown by 500% since 2012 and is taking huge quantities of tuna

8 June 2021

  • A rusted truck remains at a Panguna mine

    Australian mining companies have paid little or no corporate income tax in PNG despite huge profits

  • Roubena Ritata sits on a rock on Banaba

    The island with no water: how foreign mining destroyed Banaba

6 June 2021

  • How a tiny Pacific community fought off a giant mining company – video

    A proposal to mine 60% of Wagina for bauxite was met with outrage by locals and became a landmark case in Solomon Islands

  • Mining illustration

    Mining in the Pacific: a blessing and a curse

    Millions of tonnes of fuel, oil and minerals are extracted from the region – but some communities have little to show for it but devastation
  • Wagina Island from the air

    The little island that won: how a tiny Pacific community fought off a giant mining company

    A proposal to mine 60% of Wagina for bauxite was met with outrage by locals and became a landmark case in Solomon Islands

31 May 2021

  • Tree trunks ready for loading at a port in Papua New Guinea.

    From a forest in Papua New Guinea to a floor in Sydney: how China is getting rich off Pacific timber

  • An illustration of cut-down trees

    Lush forests laid to waste: how Pacific Islands got hooked on logging

30 May 2021

  • Illustration for Pacific Plunder project.

    Pacific Plunder: this is who profits from the mass extraction of the region’s natural resources – interactive

    Across the region, mining, logging and fishing have formed the basis of economies and development, but have sometimes come at catastrophic cost
  • China takes more by weight of these resources than the next 10 countries combined.

    The $3bn bargain: how China dominates Pacific mining, logging and fishing

    China received more than half of all seafood, wood, and minerals exported from the region in 2019. Experts warn this is creating ‘enormous challenges for sustainable development’
  • Logging and mining started on Rennell Island a decade ago, with serious environmental and social impacts.

    ‘They failed us’: how mining and logging devastated a Pacific island in a decade

    Rennell Island, in Solomon Islands, has suffered the triple assault of extensive logging, bauxite mining, and a devastating oil spill from a carrier hired by a mining company
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