~w~ronmental Policy and Law, 10 (1983)

UNCTAD

Conference on Tropical Timber

1;~'t

The United Nations Conference on Tropical Timber on March 31 adjourned after a first session that saw the 64 countries participating rench consensus on all but six of the 43 ax~eles of an International agreement on the commodity.

The Conference was convened after nearly six yea~ of preparatory work conducted under UNCTAD and FAO, during ";h~ch the clemonts of the agreement on tropical timber were d e ~ u d as zesearch and development, z'efon~smdon end forc:,T managcroent, increased processing in ~lc,clo",in~ lXodUcing countries and ~npmvcmont of market intelligence. Projects in these fields would depond for finan- cing largely on the Second Account of U'ze Common Fund for Commodities which was adopted under UNCTAD ausp':ces but has not yet been nstab- tished uending ratification by a utffi- cient number of states. Other sotw.es of funds envisaged are interantiemd and regional flnencing institutions ~ d government contributions.

At the final plenmT, producers consumers Mike expressed tt~ap-

pointment that it had not Im3ved possi- ble to adopt the agreement in a single three-wnek snsston but felt confident thst this could be achieved at the next meeting to be held before the end of the year. Meanwhile. the Chairman of the Ccnfere,'-,ce, Tatsttm Kunagi (Ja- pan) will undertake consultations on the or~standing i ~ u ~ , with a view m assessing prospects for m~.solvlng them,

These issues include queslions such as the location of the beadqmtr- tern of the new in0~rna~onM txopical timber organization, for which lk l . gium, France, Greece, l~lnl Nether- lands and the United Kingdom have offered cities, and the number of cor~-

mittens that the ccg~ nizalion sbonld have (the Chajrreact h:~d proposed dealing respectively with Economic Information and M~,rkez Intelligence; Reforestatinn and [:L rest Management: and Processing, wh le the consumers thought only two w. re ncces_~ery).

However, Mr. Kuongi noted that differences on other broader points, such as objectives and definitions of whm should be regan/ed ~ tmpicM timber for the purposes of the agree- merit, mfleeted a major diverj~,nce on the concept of the agreement with producer~ stressing production and re- source management while most con- ~umem focussed rather on d'_c trade aspects. Nonetheless, hc was hopeful chat these issues cmfid be ~solved doriag the next session, which he considered wot0d require no more than two wcchs,

Mr. Kunugi emphar.iz~ thai Ibe proposed agreement went beymd the scope of uaditional commodity N ~ e - ments in the sense that iz k~lmk.d a global policy on resoun;e ~ - merit, raking into account the implb:m- lions of this policy for other sectors such as eue~y, agricnltore, food sepply and the Isre~ervatioa of ecosystems.

In his stht~manz on t~hnlr of dr~ producers. Denis Komm tb'ocy Coast). noted the coasidctml~ progless made in nipping on 37 orrl oil 43 articles. The nagotiatWn~ h ~ kd to a greater appreciation of ~ : pni~ls of view of producers and comm~crl by each other. Though ds: qoe~m:~ no, yet settled would not be e~,y to rnsoive even with more nine, he ',as hopef~ that n positive onzo0me wonld be attained in the ~ scr~ ion.

Ballot I~x of the h:t,lml Ceu,tmy: ,q,ttmm,~m~'~ ,~m~

037B-777X/83Y$3.00 ~ 1983 ~,~ ~vier Sctence Publishers B.V. (Nonb-Ho~'.,a~l)

122

Fra~r L.lschinger (Canada), on behalf of Ihe consumers, said the Ct~femace had gone a considerable way in the dirextior of reaching agree-

on the establishment of an inde- i~ndent uoptcal timber orgaeization. He considerb~l thal "the relatively few is~;ues which remain to he settled, al~hangh imp~'t~[, should not prove

Envlmnment~l Policy and Law, TO (1983)

impossible to overcome when we t~- would see ~ Confc-nmce finish its convene the Conference". wink, especially i f it was preceded by

Jargen Brandenburg (Federal Re- a phase of active and constnlctivc public of Germany), on behalf of the prepm'ation since the positions or pm- Eur(tpean Community, underlined the d'acers and consumers a ~ now well complexity of the task of establishing a '~mown. Asko Numminen (Finland). new a~a of international cooperation on behalf of the Nordic Countries, in the ffopical timber economy. He paid ffibute to the solid groundwork firmly believed that the ncxL session now laid for the next session. [ ]

Pollution from Seabed Mining: Legal Safeguards ~y Fo~-L BROWN*

I, INTRODUCTION

At Ihe time ot writing tDccemher 19K2l, thc new United Nations Con- veIltiOfl on Ihe Law of the Sea (hereaf- ter 'the Cunvenlinn') has just been opened for signature in Jamaica and its eventual late is most uncertain. AI- IbtV.tgh 117 Slates signed the Conven- tion immediale[y, a further 23 Stales ~L:ith:d to sign only the Final Act of ti~J ('on[ercnce, ~ Moreover, the Con- vemtLm was signed by only 5 of the 11 Szate~, to which the Conference had granted a prc[emntial status under the scheme hlr Preparatory Investment th'ntet'tian. ~ namely, Canada. France, India, tkc Netherlands and the Soviet Union. Of the remaining 6 which did not sign the Con', ntinn, the United Klflgdt;m and the United States had already, prior to the Jamaica session. oiled t~i r dissatisfaction with the sen- bed pmvisinns of the Convention as the mL~on for their decision not to sign the Convention.' Italy hoped that the Preparatury commission would help

"l~ul'~,~,~ of lntcrnalitmM Lie* in tim Uni tef.tq, ~tt Waks: L}in.'*at~. Comer I~ Marine t.,v* emd I.~,tky, UWIST. Ean~H.

iron oat difficulties over the seabed regimc, while Belgium and the Federal Republic of Germany stated that they were still studying the text? Finally, Japan staled that the Convention nteri- ted its support but was still under review by its new Government.'

It will be recalled too that three of the non-signatory States Germany, ,'.he United Kingdom and the United States - together with France and the Soviet Union, have adopted unilateral, 'interim' legislation designed to allow deep-sea mining to proceed pending the entry into [orco of an intemanonal regime acceptable to them? The four W~:stem Powers have also taken the first step to co-ordinate their "Recipro- cating SLates" legislation by conclud- ing a simple 'mini-convention' under which enameling ~. urns will be pro- vented or resolved,' Similar legislation mighl well have already reached the statute book in Italy but for the prevail- ing political instability?

In these circumstances them must be some doubt whether the protection of the marine environment from poilu- lion by activities in the Area will be provided by the Convention of by a nmwork of unilateral municipal legis- lation internationally co-ordinated.

This situation alone would have re- quired that the scope of th~.s report should extend to cover both the Con- ventlon regime and the provisions of national legislation. However, such coverage would have been necessary in any event_ Pending the adoption of regulations and procndums by the new institutions established by UNCLOS HI, by far the most far-re~ching a~d sophisticated provisions fr, r the protec- tion of the marine environment against the throat posed by seabed mining are those established under United Stales legislation. Them can be little doubt that the American model will be very influential upon the draftsmen who will be called upon to develop the rudimentary provisions of both the Convention regime and the legislation of the other Reciprocating States, Fro" this ~asun, this p.-pert fails into two main pans, dealing respective[31 with the prnvisions of the Convention re- game and the Reciprocating States" legislation.

First, however, it is necessary to review briefly what is known of the nature and scale of the fl~'~at to the marine environment posed by the plans to explore and exploit the miner- al resources of the Area.

03-/8-777X/B3J$3.00 ~¢ 1983 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (North-Holland)