In many ways, the election of a new Secretary General at International Seabed Authority(ISA) this week in Jamaica, Kingstone , will determine the future of our oceans.
The run up to this election has created an unprecedented trust deficit based on the kind of trickery and behind the scenes lobbying of various African countries, according to sources across the continent.
The period preceding this election has not been without battles and allegations of corruption and improper favours to the very council members supposed to vote the very organisations in charge of protecting the oceans for all its 168 members.
The background to this is that Africa has been opposed to the idea of fast tracking the process towards mining the ocean, and wants a proper mining code to take proper steps cautiously before regulations are made. Unfortunately though, many African countries don’t pay their dues to ISA and thus tend not to have a strong voice with in the Assembly’s decisions.And that’s where allegations have been all over the place .
Allegations are many but some include African delegates being sponsored and coordinated to and during the council sessions by the teams of the current ISA Secretary General Michael Lodge.
While Lodge and his teams deny this, some delegates with in the Africa group point out that they have been lobbied by his teams, in some cases promising that the next Secretary General after 2028 would come from Africa.
Already, the International Relations Institute of Cameroon (IRIC) has partnered with ISA to establish an African Academy for Deep-Sea Diplomacy (ADSEA), which some delegates believe all this was meant to influence the Africa Group towards the candidature of Lodge.
But critics support his opponent Leticia Carvalho, a Brazilian oceanographer and international civil servant for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), who they believe would remove ISA from the shackles of the private mining industry.
Carvalho is running for the position of secretary-general of the ISA, a U.N.-mandated body charged with overseeing activities related to seabed minerals while also ensuring the protection of the marine environment. The ISA, headquartered in Kingston, Jamaica, is made up of 168 member states and the European Union, and consists of five main organs: the assembly, council, secretariat, legal and technical commission, and finance committee.
This week, as the Assembly votes the new Secretary General, questions continue to linger as to whether ISA is pro- the mining industry and why its convinced that sea bed mining is necessary ,anyway.
Critics view Lodge as a believer in a regulatory regime for seabed mining, but question why evidence suggests he leans towards fast- tracking the process to a mining code for this kind of mining.
For now, deep-sea mining has not yet started anywhere in the world. The ISA is working to finish a set of rules, regulations and procedures for how mining can proceed, known as the mining code. In July 2023, ISA delegates set a rough deadline to finish the mining code in 2025, although some observers say they don’t believe this timeline is feasible. In the meantime, Canadian firm The Metals Company has expressed its intent to apply for an exploitation license later this year, which would allow the company to begin extracting seabed minerals for commercial purposes in the near future — possibly before the mining code is complete.
This idea of urgency to create a mining code for sea bed mining for companies like The Metals Company is where environmental critics have a problem with
Lodge’s candidature.
Another reason as to why Africa is uncomfortable with Lodge’s candidacy is the fact that under his watch, in 2007, ISA released to a private mining company key information from the Seabed Authority, giving a major pace ahead to their mining plans in the ocean. This means that ISA provided data identifying some of the most valuable seabed tracts, and then set aside the prized sites for the
company’s future use, according to reporting by New York Times.
According to this report, the sharing of that information angered ISA employees who said some of the data was meant for developing countries trying to compete with richer countries, something the agency is mandated under international law to assist.
“You are violating the legal concept behind the Seabed Authority,”
Sandor Mulsow, who held top positions at the agency before leaving in 2019, was quoted as saying
Many of these developing countries against which this mining firm got an information edge based on this data provided by ISA, are in Africa.
As I end this off, yesterday, the President of Palau, Surangel S. Whipps Jr., President of Palau used the analogy of 1994 when we witnessed the
ratification of the United Nations’ Convention on the Law of the Sea. In the same year, he said, Palau finally regained its independence after four consecutive administrations of colonial rule.
“This dual milestone for both Palau and the ISA should remind us of the importance of true independence and stewardship over our natural resources.
Just as Palau worked hard to reclaim its land and ocean from others seeking to claim it as their own, we now strive to protect our shared ocean from a new form of colonialism. Our shared seabed is at risk of being destroyed and sold for profit, benefiting only a select few. As a sovereign nation, and like every other sovereign nation on Earth, we bear the crucial responsibility of safeguarding the common heritage of humankind. As members of this assembly, it is our duty to ensure that the ISA fulfills its mandate of “ensuring the effective protection of the marine environment, ” he noted
“Palau is a Big Ocean State – comprised of 99.92 percent ocean and less than .1 percent land. Our lives, our economy, and our health are intrinsically linked to this vast expanse of Pacific water. Our deep-rooted connection to the ocean has helped define us as a people, with our unique culture, and it has always driven us to champion its cause.’he said
This is why this election of a new Secretary General is between 2 groups: Those who are pro- saving the livelihood of the world through protecting the ocean and those who are pro private mining industry profits.