presumption appear to be borne out by the draft Exploitation Regulations, discussed
under the next Sect. 3.
3 Environmental Management Looking Ahead
(Exploitation Regime)
3.1 Development of New Exploitation Regulations
The ISA’s Exploitation Regulations for the Area are currently under negotiation, and
this process thus affords an opportunity to build upon, and fill any gaps left by, the
exploration regime. The ISA has followed a transparent, participatory process thus
far in its development of the Exploitation Regulations—consulting widely at every
step, and repeatedly reviewing the documents on the basis of the inputs received. All
of the drafts can be found online, as well as the stakeholder responses.
49 There were
no restrictions imposed upon who could submit a response, and the stakeholder
responses show strong stakeholder participation, and increasing engagement in
particular by member governments.
50 The draft Exploitation Regulations
51 so far
suggest a positive gear change in relation to regulatory good-practice generally, for
example with respect to strong monitoring and compliance provisions and high
transparency standards.
The draft Exploitation Regulations contain a Part IV dedicated to ‘Protection and
Preservation of the Marine Environment’. This is a short section (3 pages—compared to the 60 pages of stand-alone Environmental Regulations that were initially
proposed by the ISA Secretariat in January 2017)
52 ; it is focused on high-level
environmental obligations and principles, rather than on operational detail. One
welcome inclusion is prescription of a format for an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), and for an Environmental Management and Monitoring Plan (EMMP),
with the stipulation that both must be submitted and reviewed—including via public
consultation—in any application for an exploitation contract.
49 https://www.isa.org.jm/legal-instruments/ongoing-development-regulations-exploitation-min
eral-resources-area.
50 ISA Secretariat consultations on the Exploitation Regulations yielded only 9 responses from
Governments in May 2015, rising to 19 responses from Governments in December 2017, and
22 responses from Governments in November 2018.
51 This article refers to the July 2018 version contained in ISBA/24/LTC/WP.1/Rev.1 https://www.
isa.org.jm/document/isba24ltcwp1rev1.
52 ‘Discussion Paper on the Development and drafting of Regulations on exploitation for mineral
resources in the Area (Environmental matters)’ available at: https://ran-s3.s3.amazonaws.com/isa.
org.jm/s3fs-public/documents/EN/Regs/DraftExpl/DP-EnvRegsDraft25117.pdf.
344
H. Lily and S. E. Roady
under the next Sect. 3.
3 Environmental Management Looking Ahead
(Exploitation Regime)
3.1 Development of New Exploitation Regulations
The ISA’s Exploitation Regulations for the Area are currently under negotiation, and
this process thus affords an opportunity to build upon, and fill any gaps left by, the
exploration regime. The ISA has followed a transparent, participatory process thus
far in its development of the Exploitation Regulations—consulting widely at every
step, and repeatedly reviewing the documents on the basis of the inputs received. All
of the drafts can be found online, as well as the stakeholder responses.
49 There were
no restrictions imposed upon who could submit a response, and the stakeholder
responses show strong stakeholder participation, and increasing engagement in
particular by member governments.
50 The draft Exploitation Regulations
51 so far
suggest a positive gear change in relation to regulatory good-practice generally, for
example with respect to strong monitoring and compliance provisions and high
transparency standards.
The draft Exploitation Regulations contain a Part IV dedicated to ‘Protection and
Preservation of the Marine Environment’. This is a short section (3 pages—compared to the 60 pages of stand-alone Environmental Regulations that were initially
proposed by the ISA Secretariat in January 2017)
52 ; it is focused on high-level
environmental obligations and principles, rather than on operational detail. One
welcome inclusion is prescription of a format for an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), and for an Environmental Management and Monitoring Plan (EMMP),
with the stipulation that both must be submitted and reviewed—including via public
consultation—in any application for an exploitation contract.
49 https://www.isa.org.jm/legal-instruments/ongoing-development-regulations-exploitation-min
eral-resources-area.
50 ISA Secretariat consultations on the Exploitation Regulations yielded only 9 responses from
Governments in May 2015, rising to 19 responses from Governments in December 2017, and
22 responses from Governments in November 2018.
51 This article refers to the July 2018 version contained in ISBA/24/LTC/WP.1/Rev.1 https://www.
isa.org.jm/document/isba24ltcwp1rev1.
52 ‘Discussion Paper on the Development and drafting of Regulations on exploitation for mineral
resources in the Area (Environmental matters)’ available at: https://ran-s3.s3.amazonaws.com/isa.
org.jm/s3fs-public/documents/EN/Regs/DraftExpl/DP-EnvRegsDraft25117.pdf.
344
H. Lily and S. E. Roady