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Paper Number: 69
Deep
Seabed Mining, Geo-ethics and Pacific Small Island Developing
States
Verbitsky, J.E.1
1AUT
University, Private Bag 92006, Auckland 1020, New Zealand, jane.verbitsky@aut.ac.nz
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In 2001 the first contracts for deep seabed mining exploration were
awarded by the International Seabed Authority (ISA). Since that time a
number of Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS) have expressed
interest in deep seabed mining and the extraction from the ocean of
minerals and rare earth elements as a method of generating much needed
revenues for their struggling economies. This is an approach consistent
with the goal of a “realization of a just and equitable international
economic order” outlined in the Preamble to the United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982) and the establishment of
benefit-sharing governance architecture under Part XI of the
convention.
However, while deep seabed mining represents a means of generating
monies that could be used for capital investment in development
projects, it is also a marine extractive process that has been critiqued
by non-governmental organizations and other civil society actors because
of both its potential for invidious environmental and ecological
impacts, and the perceived lack of meaningful participation by
communities that will be affected by seabed mining. This paper examines
the dilemmas and debates for Pacific SIDS in pursuing deep seabed
mining. It sets these dilemmas and debates in the context of the United
Nations Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and of one
Pacific SIDS (Nauru) experiences with phosphate mining.
