ENVIRONMENT: Law of the Sea Set to Sail Next Week

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 11 (IPS) - The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, which required 27 years to move from conception to completion, finally enters into force on Nov. 16.

The 1982 convention provides a legal framework and detailed rules to govern the uses of oceans and seas and their resources.

Although the convention has been ratified or acceded to by more than the 60 states needed to validate it, industrialised countries have in the past expressed reservations over parts of the treaty. As a result, the convention looked ready to set sail without any industrialised countries on board.

But in July, rich and poor countries buried the hatchet over a 12-year dispute on the convention's provisions for deep seabed mining, removing the final obstacle to broader participation in the treaty. Australia and Germany have since ratified the convention.

The agreement governs the exploitation of mineral resources in the deep seabed beyond the zones of national jurisdiction.

The provisions originally sought to create a just regime for exploiting such mineral resources as nickel, cobalt and manganese, and was based on the premise that profits derived from resources in the "global commons" should be fairly shared by all nations.

But industrialised countries, led by Britain and the United States, rejected this approach and discouraged other wealthy countries from ratifying the convention.

In an effort to get industrialised countries to participate, developing nations ultimately sacrificed ideals for pragmatism and embraced market principles.

The duties excised from the old mining provisions include a call for the mandatory transfer of technology, limits on seabed mining production, and an international bureaucracy to administer the "global commons".

The new agreement instead calls for a joint venture approach that commits mining partners to contribute both capital and technology. A scaled-down multi-million-dollar International Seabed Authority, to be hosted by Jamaica, will oversee mining deals.

Developing countries also lost a compensation fund which would have provided some assistance to land-based Third World mineral producers competing against seabed miners.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service