Fiji and six other Pacific island countries are beginning to feel pressure to complete their submissions to the United Nations to claim extra ocean space, with only one year remaining to the May 2009 deadline.
Fiji along with Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Palau, the Federate States of Micronesia, Tonga and Papua New Guinea have a credible claim to more than 1.5 million square kilometers of additional space beyond their current 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ),the Suva-based PACNEWS regional news agency reported on Monday.
This is being made possible under Article 76 of the International Law of the Sea, the report said.
A week-long workshop on the preparation on Fiji's submission on Extended Continental Shelf (ECS) began Monday in Fiji and was coordinated by the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) and Geoscience Australia (GA) and the UN Environment Program (UNEP) Shelf Program.
It was the first time the pacific region to combine the efforts in its bid to extend the exclusive economic zones.
SOPAC, GA and UNEP would help these countries to complete the activities required to delineate the outer limits of their continental shelf.
These countries are currently faced with the costly and complex work of data identification, collection, analysis and submission preparation, the PACNEWS reported.
Due to limited technical and financial capacity, they may not be able to complete the submission process without considerable external support, both technical and financial.
Scientific studies have revealed the access to extended continental shelf could mean more access to mineral rich resources previously outside the EEZ.
SOPAC Director Cristelle Pratt said the countries were committed to working together to improve lives in the Pacific.
Pratt said that assessments have identified strong grounds for these Pacific countries to extend sovereignty over their continental shelves.
"These Pacific Island Countries recognize that determining the boundaries of their Exclusive Economic Zone beyond 200 nautical miles is critical to securing exclusive ocean development of potentially rich non-living resources, such as oil, gas, gold and silver, as well as living organisms that live on and beneath the seabed," Pratt was quoted as saying by the PACNEWS.
Submissions to claim an extended continental shelf must be based upon sound technical data and meet requirements prescribed within Article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS), to secure an extended Continental Shelf beyond the 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone.
Source: Xinhua
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