SAN JOSE, March 3 (Prensa Latina) Costa Rica reiterated in Panama the need to obtain scientific data before exploiting the seabed, in accordance with its proposal to implement a precautionary extension of mining in those spaces, as indicated today by the local chancellery.
Meeting with representatives of 15 countries – at the invitation of France – who are attending the eighth edition of the Our Ocean Conference, Foreign Minister Arnoldo Andre reaffirmed his country’s proposal to implement the precautionary extension at the beginning of seabed mining, implemented in July 2022.
Costa Rica presented this initiative at the 27th session of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), at which those present called for such exploitation to be possible so that protection of the deep sea could be ensured.
The aforementioned, as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica points out, requires a strong regulatory framework and adequate scientific information, as well as the institutional strengthening of the ISA to promote transparency and accountability.
For her part, the Director General of Foreign Policy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Religious Affairs, Gina Guillen, stressed that more and more countries are joining San Jose’s position.
He explained that these countries are “evaluating how to coordinate actions so that the seabed is not mined until it can be assured that it is being done without harming the marine environment, for which it is necessary to obtain sufficient scientific information.”
The Costa Rican Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that since 2019, the 168 member states of the ISA, as well as the European Union, have been negotiating a text that would regulate mining in the future.
For this reason, France has called the meeting with the aim of moving towards a common position before the Power Council sessions which will start in Jamaica on the 16th.
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