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Rewriting sovereign boundaries
Rewriting sovereign boundaries
Eight Pacific Islands nations stand to gain a share of the vast untapped seabed resources if their submissions to the United Nations are successful.
Under Article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS), the eight countries are entitled to claim the continental shelf—the part of a continent that is submerged—beyond their 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, Tonga, Papua New Guinea and the Cook Islands are working to meet the May 13, 2009 deadline for submissions to the UN. Kiribati, however, has until 2013 as it ratified the convention four years later than the others.
Their claim would extend their jurisdiction over a combined area of 1.5 million square kilometres of seabed and subsoil that is rich in minerals, copper, gold, petroleum and other resources.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is helping these countries to carry out the exhaustive and highly specialised work required to make their submissions.
Dr Elaine Baker, a principal research fellow with UNEP’s Shelf Programme, said vital data had been gathered from around the world on the shape and characteristics of the sea floor, which UNEP had made available to the eight countries, free of charge.
“This is the biggest rewriting of sovereign boundaries in peacetime. At other times, it has had to be done after conflict—this way, there’s no shots fired,’’ she quipped.
“When you have delineated these areas, then you can start managing and then you have legal certainty. You don’t lose the right if you don’t put in a submission, but you don’t have the legal framework to deal with it. A lot of these areas won’t use their continental shelf because they’re mainly in deep water and wouldn’t be economical, but this could happen in the future.’’
Last month representatives from the eight countries attended a workshop in Suva jointly organised by the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC), Geoscience Australia and UNEP’s Shelf Programme.
The workshop was aimed at helping them to complete the required activities to delineate the outer limits of their continental shelf and to meet the May 2009 deadline for submissions.
Without this support, many would find it difficult to undertake the complex and expensive work of data identification, collection, analysis and submission preparation due to lack of funds and technical expertise.
Emily Artack, a cartographer with SOPAC’s Maritime Boundaries Project, said countries who were able to claim this extended sovereignty could reap significant strategic and economic benefits.
“Scientific studies have revealed that access to extended continental shelf could mean more access to mineral rich resources previously outside our EEZ,’’ she said.
“Securing greater maritime sovereignty can provide increased revenue for Pacific states and deliver significant economic and social benefits from having access to ocean resources that occur on the seabed and within the subsoil.’’
Most of these countries have a 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone which includes fishing zones, the boundaries of which they share with other member countries. Their present boundaries are determined by “baselines’’ (outer-most edges of the reef).
There are 47 shared boundaries in the region, 24 of which have not been determined and five of which are currently under negotiation, Artack said.
The mineral-rich Ontong Java Plateau is the subject of a joint submission by Papua New Guinea, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Solomon Islands. They will determine how the area will be divided among them once their submission is approved.
Masio Nidung, of PNG’s Office of the State Solicitor (International Law), is the co-ordinator of the PNG Maritime Boundary Delimitation Project. She said her government had put in K$25 million towards the submission project.
Nidung explained the three components to their project:
• Legal and policy review.
• Updates of our maritime boundaries.
• ECS submission.
“We stand to gain a lot: we have a lot of mining on land and now in the sea. They have found the gold that’s found on land is of lesser quality than the seabed one,’’ she said.
Phil Symonds, a senior adviser with Science and Law of the Sea for the Australian Government’s Geoscience Australia, said it was known that there was a wealth of microbial life beneath the oceanfloor and he was enthusiastic about the prospects for biopharmaceuticals, chemical engineering and mining.
“We don’t often know what is there, but we do know there are areas of potential. There are biological resources—living creatures that live on the seafloor and under the seabed. There’s a whole biomass far beneath the sea floor,’’ he said.
“Over the last 15 years, some of the enzymes found there have been used in chemical engineering. You only need one enzyme and you can clone it in the laboratory.
“Around PNG, there are “black smokers’’ (naturally occurring chimney-like structures) that vent sulphites, gold, precious minerals—the Woodlark Basin is known for them. This part of the region (Fiji and neighbouring countries) is likely to have black smokers, too.’’
Symonds said that while conducting research at such depths was highly expensive, countries were keen to extend their maritime sovereign territory for strategic reasons. Australia has already succeeded in increasing its territory by another 35 percent.
“People want to know these things are around in case they need them. They want to find out what these creatures are and use them for pharmaceuticals,’’ he said.
Though many small islands countries in the region may not be able to undertake exploration and mining themselves, they can derive income from their extended territory through selling exploration and mining rights to outside companies.
“The outer boundaries of the ECS are still unknown. The real answer is that we don’t often know what is there. There are biological resources, creatures that live on the seafloor and beneath the seabed,’’ Symonds said.
“There’s a whole biomass under the sea floor to a depth of at least 700 metres and that’s been explored only over the past 15 years. Some of the enzymes have been used in chemical engineering.
“The Pacific region is pretty complicated in terms of the seafloor characteristics. Around PNG there are black smokers that vent sulphites, gold, precious metals. They are like cones or smoke stacks. This part of the Pacific is likely to have black smokers .
“The Woodlark Basin in PNG is a known area. Claiming it is the first step, then you have to go out there and manage it and find out what’s there.
“Now some of these things are becoming strategic issues. People want to know there are these things around in case they need them.’’
Andrick Lal, SOPAC’s senior project officer (Surveying), said making submissions to UNCLOS was a lengthy process: compiling data and addressing legal, technical and policy issues necessary for the submission could take two or three years.
But first, the countries must convince a UN sub-committee that they have a credible claim. Before any action is taken on it, the submission is published on a website for three months to enable time for comments or objections from interested parties.
It would then be referred to the full 21-member commission for its final deliberations.
– By Kate Horoi
NZ immigration under probe
New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Helen Clark, has ordered a third inquiry into the Immigration Service in a fortnight, claiming she is tired of being “blindsided” by allegations over the past few weeks which have shattered the integrity of the department and its Pacific division.
The first public signs of the crises came mid-May, with the resignation of Immigration head, Mary Anne Thompson. This followed an employee’s public complaint that she was strong-armed into processing an application for Thompson’s family from Kiribati, against the rules and several months after the annual Kiribati quota had been filled.
Days later, Thompson’s claim to hold a PhD from the London School of Economics was revealed to be false.
The department’s Pacific Division has since been reeling after numerous instances of bribery, corruption, fraud and conflict of interest came to light.
Thompson set up the division to process all Pacific residency and work applications, including the Samoa and Pacific Access category. The division was subsequently involved in New Zealand’s regional seasonal employment programme.
Documents released to ISLANDS BUSINESS under the country’s Official Information Act showed that since 2004, 19 serious offences were proven against numerous staff at the 60-person division, including theft, bribery and fraud. Nine people were fired or resigned, and three were referred to the police.
In a report last year, New Zealand’s Residency Review Board was scathing about the division’s handling of many of its cases. Processes were “muddled” and “wholly inadequate”; “devoid of reasoning or assessment,” and breached requirements of justice and fairness.
Clark also said ministers had not known about a 2005 inquiry into conflict-of-interest claims over Thompson’s appointment of Mai Malaulau to set up the Pacific division.
Malaulau, a friend of Thompson, ordered that the Thompson family’s applications be processed. She was a former business partner of another high-ranking immigration head. Malaulau was awarded an untendered contract worth NZ$500,000 to set up the division in 2005, and later appointed as its head on a NZ$1000 a-day contract.
A departmental spokesman told ISLANDS BUSINESS it would be “business as usual” despite the investigations. Regional seasonal employment schemes for Pacific Islands workers would not be affected.
“We expect it [the inquiries] will...help bring to a conclusion matters that have recently been aired publicly and have subjected us to considerable scrutiny,” the spokesman said.
The latest inquiry, to be headed by the country’s Auditor-General, will run alongside a current departmental review of its Pacific Division and a State Services inquiry into the handling of Thompson’s efforts to secure visa waivers for her family.
Meanwhile, New Zealand’s opposition National Party has been attacking the government’s claims it was unaware of the various reports and allegations levelled against the Pacific Division.
The National Party says even the most incompetent minister would have heard alarm bells ringing over the department’s internal reports—now obtained in part by the country’s media and ISLANDS BUSINESS.
National Party’s Immigration spokesman Lockwood Smith says heads must roll: “What confidence can people have when they see that fear and favour is the way the outfit runs? It’s got to change. Ministers have to accept some accountability and some heads are going to have to roll,” Smith said.
--Duncan Wilson
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