海底熱水鉱床の資源開発に伴う環境影響評価の取リ組みの概要

摘要

In Japan, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) commenced a research and development project on seafloor massive sulfide (SMS) deposits in Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the 2008 fiscal year. The project defines the plan for the commercialization of SMS within 10 years. Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) has conducted the research under contract to METI. Aiming for an environmentally-friendly commercial production, it is extremely impor-tant to develop SMS deposits, which widely distribute in the sea area surrounding Japan and are expected to be domestic future metal resources. Since the SMS fields include hydrothermal ecosystems which often host dense endemic animal communities, an adequate environmental impact assessment (EIA) and a conservation strategy to protect biodiversity are required for sustainable development. In this paper, we outline the environmental research program consisting of a baseline survey, environmental impact mod-eling and conservation methodology, and hope this program will contribute to a global standard for as-sessing the environmental impacts of SMS exploration and mining.