The combined figure for the additional seabed that has been secured by 12 countries with assistance from the Secretariat is two million sq km – equivalent in size to the land area of Mexico.
Four more Commonwealth countries make bid for additional areas of seabed
20 May 2009
Commonwealth assists Guyana, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka and Tonga
Four more Commonwealth countries have successfully lodged claims for additional areas of seabed.
Guyana, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka and Tonga have all successfully made submissions to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf with assistance from the Commonwealth Secretariat.
What is a continental shelf?
The continental shelf of a coastal state comprises the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas that extend beyond its territorial sea throughout the natural prolongation of its land territory to the outer edge of the continental margin, or to a distance of 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured where the outer edge of the continental margin does not extend up to that distance. (Source: Article 76, 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea)
This brings the total number of countries helped by the Secretariat in making their submissions to twelve. The combined figure for the additional seabed that has been secured by these 12 submissions is two million sq km – equivalent in size to the land area of Mexico.
These submissions give coastal and island states exclusive sovereign rights to explore and exploit all natural resources in the claimed areas.
“The submissions were the culmination of sustained and dedicated work that involved national teams from all the four countries under four separate Secretariat projects of assistance,” explained Jose Maurel, Director of Special Advisory Services at the Secretariat.
The Secretariat’s team, headed up by Judy Ndaona, Legal Adviser, provided in-house legal and policy advice and scientific and technical inputs were provided by external institutions including the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK and Geometrix, Canada in the preparation of the Submissions.
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