JAMAICA has been re-elected to the council — the executive body — of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) — which ended its annual two-week session at its headquarters in Kingston on Thursday.

Membership is for a three-year term and elections take place ever two years for half the council. The period for which Jamaica is now elected is 2003 to 2006.

Jamaica was re-elected as a member of Group D, consisting of six developing states representing special interests.

These include states with large populations, the land-locked or geographically disadvantaged countries, islands, major mineral importers or potential producers, and the least developed. Egypt, Fiji and Jamaica will join Brazil, Papua New Guinea and Sudan in the group.

Before Thursday’s adjournment, a day ahead of schedule, the ISA Assembly approved the report of its Credentials Committee, heard a declaration from the Latin American and Caribbean Group, and received a summary of its work during the session, which opened in Kingston on August 5. The summary was presented in a statement by the president, Martin Belinga-Eboutou (Cameroon).

Earlier the council, the other intergovernmental bodies of the authority, wrapped up its work for the year by completing a preliminary exchange of views on possible approaches to the drafting of regulations for polymetallic sulphides and cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts. These two recently discovered deep-ocean mineral deposits are rich sources of economically valuable minerals such as manganese, iron, copper, lead, nickel, zinc, gold, silver and other metals as well as rare-earth elements.

In a statement on the work of the 36-member body during the past two weeks, Council President Fernando Pardo Huerta (Chile) noted the need for a flexible approach when formulating regulations for prospecting and exploration for these minerals, particularly in view of the lack of scientific knowledge relating to deep-sea ecosystems. Many speakers urged action, possibly through interim measures, to safeguard the marine environment — especially around hydrothermal vents, with their fragile and unique ecosystems. Others, however, citing the paucity of scientific knowledge, urged a cautious approach to the development of regulations.

The statement on behalf of the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States, read by Argentina, made several points in reference to the report of the secretary-general on the work of the authority. The group thought it premature to consider exploitation of non-living resources of the extended continental shelf — that is, the areas where the shelf extends beyond 200 miles from the coastal baseline.

The assembly, acting without discussion, approved an official design for the emblem and flag of the authority, and recommended that member states act to protect the design and name of the authority from unauthorised use for commercial or other purposes.

The design consists of an oval within which stylised scales of justice surmount a pattern of waves representing the sea, bracketed between the twin olive branches used in the emblems of the United Nations and many related intergovernmental organisations. The name ‘International Seabed Authority’ encircles the central oval. The flag incorporates the design in yellow on a dark blue background.

The International Seabed Authority, with a current membership of 138, was established under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, as modified by the 1994 Agreement relating to the Implementation of Part XI (seabed provisions) of the Convention. Its task, as set out in the convention, is to organise and control all resource-related activities in the seabed area beyond the jurisdiction of any state, an area underlying most of the world’s oceans. The convention defines this deep-seabed area and its resources as “the common heritage of mankind”. In existence since 1994, the authority is an autonomous international agency having a relationship agreement with the United Nations.