New Regulation for Seabed Mining

The U.N. International Seabed Authority (ISA) recently issued a “Report on the draft framework for the regulation of deep seabed exploitation activities“.

The ISA report on the draft regulation of marine mining is open for comment until May 15th.

The WOC (World Ocean Council) is working to help ensure there is adequate ocean industry input to key international developments on policies, regulations, planning and priorities for responsible development of deep sea mineral resources and the environmental management of ocean areas beyond national jurisdiction.

The ISA report highlights the agency’s commitment to an open and inclusive dialogue with stakeholders in developing the regulatory framework. The ISA recognizes the need to engage with a wider and multi-disciplinary audience of experts.

It is important that robust scientific evidence and viewpoints are considered in this key document to advance the development of the ISA rules, regulations and procedures on seabed minerals exploitation.

The ocean business community is encouraged to ensure that government and inter-governmental agencies have full and balanced information regarding the use of ocean resources important for societal needs and development of the “Blue Economy”.

The next World Ocean Council Sustainable Ocean Summit (SOS) will take place in Singapore the week of 9-11 November 2015.