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3 Management of the Global Commons • Resources of the High Seas and the Deep Seabed • Resources of Outer Space and Celestial Bodies • The Two Polar Regions • The Atmosphere • Assessment This chapter addresses the management of the areas and resources beyond the limits of national jurisdiction, often referred to as the global commons. The chapter presents the regime for deep seabed exploitation and the regulation of the exploitation and conservation of the living resources of the high seas—fisheries as well as whales and seals. It next presents the management regime applicable to the resources of outer space, particularly the moon and perhaps other celestial bodies. It then addresses the management of the natural resources in the two polar regions. Lastly, it examines the problems involved with managing atmospheric resources, in particular the ozone layer and the climate system. Some of these resource management regimes have been set up within the framework of the United Nations or with the participation of its organs and agencies. Others—namely the regime to manage Antarctica and the Arctic—have deliberately been kept outside the UN context, but the lessons learned from these management regimes might provide important insights on management techniques, principles, and processes that could be useful for improving the management of natural resources by the United Nations. Resources of the High Seas and the Deep Seabed The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982) created a comprehensive legal framework for governing the exploitation and conservation of marine natural resources in areas beyond national jurisdiction—the deep seabed and the high seas. Considering that an account of the UN’s involvement in the creation of UNCLOS was already given in preceding chapters, this section presents the management of the marine global commons, beginning with the convention’s complex provisions on exploiting the resources of the deep seabed beyond national jurisdiction, 76                     Development without Destruction followed by the regime for managing the living resources of the high seas. The section also describes agreements that built on the framework of UNCLOS and created additional rules for managing specific marine resources. The Natural Resources of the Ocean Floor beyond National Jurisdiction That the great ocean depths contain valuable resources was discovered as early as 1873, when the expedition of HMS Challenger revealed the presence of polymetallic (manganese) nodules on the deep seabed.1 These potato-shaped, dark-colored, rocklike formations, which are rich in valuable metals such as nickel, manganese, copper, and cobalt, were the subject of increased interest, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, when great economic advantages were expected to be gained from their extensive deposits. By some estimates, these resources were on order of thousands of millions of tons and in concentrations richer than in many land-based deposits. Since the end of the 1970s, two other types of resources have been discovered on the deep seabed: polymetallic sulfides and cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts, the latter particularly rich in such minerals as copper, iron, zinc, silver, gold, and cobalt. Polymetallic nodules are scattered across the vast abyssal plains of the seabed; the most promising deposits are in the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone in the Pacific Ocean and in the central Indian Ocean. Polymetallic sulfides and cobalt crusts are concentrated in specific locations and are fused to the seabed. The former are found around hot springs in active volcanic areas (the greatest concentrations have so far been found beyond the continental shelves of the island nations of the western Pacific) while the latter occur on oceanic ridges and seamounts at several locations around the world.2 In spite of these differences, all three types of resources are now subject to the complex and detailed provisions of UNCLOS. Building on the Declaration of Principles Governing the Seabed and the Ocean Floor, and the Subsoil Thereof, beyond the Limits of National Jurisdiction (1970), UNCLOS proclaimed “the Area” (as “the sea-bed and ocean floor and the subsoil thereof, beyond the limits of national jurisdiction” was called) and its resources to be the common heritage of mankind and created a complex international regime to regulate future mining in the deep seabed and an appropriate international machinery .3 Yet many provisions of this new regime had become controversial by the time UNCLOS was adopted. Although it soon became clear that commercial deep seabed mining was not likely to take place soon, controversies lingered that industrializing states used as justification for not ratifying the convention.4 Owing to fierce ideological resistance, particularly from the United States...

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