Benefit Sharing
The principle of "Common Heritage of Mankind" calls for equitably sharing the financial and economic benefits.
The principle of "Common Heritage of Mankind" calls for equitably sharing the financial and economic benefits.
The obligation of benefit sharing is to equitably share between all states the financial and economic benefits resulting from deep-sea mining. Up to now, it remains unclear how to reach this target. However, benefit sharing is particularly important for those states that are unable to benefit from deep-sea mining on the basis of their own projects.
The exact details are currently being discussed and negotiated by an "open ended working group" at the ISA. Substantially, two main issues are to be considered. First, how much, in what way and at what time project developers have to share the financial and other economic benefits with the ISA, when exploiting mineral resources. Second, how and to whom these shared benefits will be distributed.
In order to comply with the principle of "Common Heritage of Mankind", the financial mechanism should be shaped in such a way that an optimal return for mankind is generated. It is important to include in the balance the economic benefits of other uses and the impact on the environment. Furthermore, this assessment should be guided by the need to ensure that the natural capital of the deep sea is preserved after mining exploitation. In this respect, mining activities should therefore achieve a net benefit once all effects on the environment as well as on other potential uses have been considered.
