United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization: Deep Sea Mining & A Biodiversity of the Sea Floor

UNESCO has raised concerns about protecting biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, particularly the seafloor, which remains unregulated under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). While recent discussions on the conservation of biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ) have led to a draft treaty covering the water column, the seafloor’s mineral and genetic resources remain in a policy vacuum. This lack of regulation allows countries to exploit these resources unilaterally, posing significant risks to fragile ecosystems such as hydrothermal vents and deep-sea mounts. Mineral resources like polymetallic nodules, critical for clean energy technologies, and marine genetic resources, valuable for scientific and pharmaceutical advancements, could be extracted at great environmental cost. As the world faces a potential deep-sea mining race, balancing economic development, environmental protection, and equitable resource sharing is vital. Under the “common heritage of humankind” principle outlined in UNCLOS, these resources should benefit all, yet the absence of a comprehensive regulatory framework threatens to prioritize national interests over sustainability. Current institutions like the International Seabed Authority (ISA) lack sufficient plans to address these challenges. Without coordinated international action, unchecked exploitation of the seafloor could cause irreversible harm to biodiversity and undermine efforts to sustainably manage the planet’s shared resources.