FIJIAN Ambassador to the International Seabed Authority (ISA) Peter Thomson has called for more resources to be pumped into the organisation in order for it to become the world’s pre-eminent source of scientific knowledge related to the international seabed.

Speaking at the opening session of the Council at the Jamaica Conference Centre on Tuesday, Thomson, in his capacity as outgoing president of that organ, conceded that the ISA’s broad mandate to organise, regulate and control all mineral-related activities in the international seabed area was being advanced, but said it lacked strategic direction.

“The International Seabed Authority must be given the necessary financial and human resources and strategic direction to lift its capacity and indeed its authority in the safeguarding of the environmental integrity of the planet’s seabed.

“To my mind, this is a current deficiency at the Authority and will remain so until there is a strategic plan that we can hold ourselves accountable to,” he said.

Speaking with the Jamaica Observer after the Council sitting, Thomson argued that solid, scientific knowledge on the subject of the environment of the seabed should not be scattered in academic institutes around the world, as is currently the case.

“At this present time, you can’t say that this is where people would come if they wanted to have definitive information on the environment of the seabed. Why is that? Because we have not put in sufficient resources, human or financial. We do not have a strategic plan in place which sets out the fact that this should be the most authoritative place in the world to come if you have any questions about the environment of the international seabed,” Thomson reasoned.

“What I would like to see is a much more open International Seabed Authority where, perhaps during the winter months, there could be a time when all the scientists who have a stake in this area come down here and collaboratively work on ensuring that this is the repository of all such scientific knowledge. They would come here and share and leave it here…so that the International Seabed Authority in Jamaica becomes the one repository, the one authority on the subject,” he continued.

Thomson, a career diplomat, was replaced at Tuesday’s sitting by Poland’s Prof Dr Maruisz Jedrysek as Council president for the 22nd session. He previously served as Assembly president, in 2011.

He has been Fiji’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations since February 2010, and was elected one of the vice-presidents for the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly in 2011. Effective September 13, Thomson will serve as president of the UN General Assembly, the first for a representative from the Pacific island states in the UN’s 71-year history.

On Tuesday, Thomson referenced a “much-delayed” strategic review of the ISA, from which he said he hoped his vision would bear fruit.

“I therefore encourage you all to diligently employ this fortnight’s session in giving your collegiate attention to the draft findings of the review. Properly concluded at the 23rd session next year, I have no doubt that the final outcomes will prove to be an important milestone in the Authority’s development,” Thomson said.

The International Seabed Authority came into being in November 1994 when the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea took effect. Its secretariat sits on the same compound as the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston.