The international seabed authority and the sustainable exploitation of the area

Abstract

In the coming years, the International Seabed Authority (isa) will face the challenge of ensuring that the sustainable exploitation of the Area. This article analyzes the measures that this organization has undertaken to overcome this chal lenge and identifies pending issues that the isa wil l have to face to achieve this goal. Methodological ly, the article is divided into two sections corresponding to the nature of the actions to be undertaken by the isa. The first wil l focus on the regulatory development; the second, on the supervision and evaluation of the activities in the Area. The third section analyzes the two main arguments developed to justify that the sustainable exploitation of the Area is not possible.