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An environmental campaigner says Maori resistance is key to shutting down the activities of multinational oil explorers.
The world’s largest oilfield survey company, Schlumberger, has applied to search for oil across almost 19,000 square-kilometres of the Taranaki Basin.
Mike Smith from Greenpeace says apart from the negative impact any further fossil fuel extraction would have on the climate, the seismic survey is hugely damaging to marine life including in the critically endangered Maui dolphin and blue whale who breed in the area.
He says recent campaigns like Te Whanau a Apanui’s seeing off oil companies from the East Cape and the challenges to Statoil in Northland coast show such companies can be stopped.
"We can bring enough pressure to bear on the companies to make it unattractive to them to continue their operations in this country. They suffer so much reputational damage on the international and world stages they think it's better for the image of their company not to be seen to be oppressing indigenous peoples, in this case Maori people, that’s not a good look," Mr Smith says.
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