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Mines: an element of the ecological debate in the South Pacific. — The island of Nauru, Grande Terre in New Caledonia and Bougainville in Papua-New Guinea have open air mines ranking among the most extensive world-wide, of phosphates, nickel and copper respectively. The exploitation of the mines has caused major disturbances in the natural and social environment of neighbouring populations. In two cases out of three, such disturbances, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, stemmed from the fact that natural, human and environmental factors had not been sufficiently taken into account. Two decades later — a length of time which (by sheer coincidence?) corresponds exactly to the duration of the debate about nuclear trials in the region — there remain ecological imbalances. Mining companies and public authorities have begun however to draw lessons from the deteriorations which local populations are denouncing with increasing determination. Techniques have been devised for the extraction of ore and the processing and stocking of waste, which aim at preserving the environment. Discussions with all parties concerned have also developed.

Introduite de manière intentionnelle pour des raisons économiques dans les archipels éloignés d'Océanie (Hawaii et la Société), où elle était naturellement absente, la mangrove a colonisé en quelques décennies de grandes portions de zone littorale. Cette formation végétale est devenue un élément banal du paysage insulaire, mais reste un sujet de controverse en raison de ses impacts écologiques réels ou potentiels. Rejetée par la Société dans l'archipel hawaiien, avec le renouveau culturel polynésien et les efforts de préservation de la biodiversité, elle est, en Polynésie française, du fait de conflits d'intérêts générateurs d'inaction et d'une certaine indifférence, en voie d'assimilation. La représentation négative de la mangrove, commune aux deux archipels, est en rupture avec l'image habituelle de cette végétation, celle du milieu nourricier et régulateur des équilibres naturels en zone côtière tropicale. CONFLIT, ESPÈCE, MANGROVE, RENOUVEAU CULTUREL ABSTRACT.-Alien mangrove in remote archipelagos of Oceania, between assimilation and rejection.-Deliberately introduced for economic reasons to the remote Hawaiian and Society Archipelagos where it did not exist naturally, mangrove colonised large swathes of coastal areas within a few decades. This alien ecosystem is now part of the landscape but still a source of controversy because of its real or potential ecological impact. Rejected by Hawaiian society, amid Polynesian cultural revival and efforts to protect biodiversity, it is being assimilated in French Polynesia, where conflicts of interest have led to inaction and indifference. A negative opinion of the mangrove is common to both archipelagos and contradicts the usual image of this form of vegetation as a nutrient environment and a regulator of the natural balance in tropical coastal areas.