[Coral-List] Chagos MPA - Continuing international dispute overboundaries

Richard Dunne RichardPDunne at aol.com
Wed Sep 29 03:16:14 EDT 2010


  Which then leads one in the direction of Article 121 of the United 
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

"Art 121.3 Rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life 
of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf."

An island becomes a 'Rock' when this applies.

The  'inability to sustain human habitation', is also what the UK 
Government has repeatedly asserted was the finding of their Chagos 
Resettlement Study in 2002.

In these circumstances an MPA can only extend 3nm from each island (the 
limit of the territorial sea for the Chagos).

Richard P Dunne




On 28/09/2010 21:44, Douglas Fenner wrote:
> I wouldn't consider either Chagos or the Maldives permanently 
> inhabited, nor Kiribati, or the Marshall Is., or Tuvalu or the 
> Tuomotus.  "Permanent" is a long time (even though people love to call 
> their monitoring transects "permenent," sounds impressive).  My 
> understanding is that even if all carbon emissions ended today (which 
> it certainly won't), global temperatures will stabilize at 2-3 C 
> higher than a couple decades ago, but sea level rise will continue for 
> at least 1000 years.  At 3 mm a year that would be about 3 m total 
> rise.  Happy snorkeling!    (I believe that the presidents of both the 
> Maldives and Kiribati have talked about planning for moving their 
> entire populations.)    Doug
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Dunne" 
> <RichardPDunne at aol.com>
> To: "Coral List" <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> Sent: Monday, September 27, 2010 11:47 PM
> Subject: [Coral-List] Chagos MPA - Continuing international dispute 
> overboundaries
>
>
>>  Dear Listers
>>
>> INTERNATIONAL DISPUTE OVER BOUNDARIES OF PROPOSED CHAGOS MPA
>>
>> On 26 July 2010 the Government of the Republic of the Maldives filed a
>> submission to the United Nations (Commission on the Limits of the
>> Continental Shelf) proposing to extend its seabed beyond the 200nm EEZ.
>> The submission also clearly shows that the Maldivian EEZ overlaps an
>> large area of the claimed Chagos Fisheries and Environment Zone, and the
>> proposed MPA.
>>
>> The UK Government formally replied to the submission on 9 August, noting
>> that it "does not take full account of the 200 nautical mile Fisheries
>> and Environment Zones of the British Indian Ocean Territory", but that
>> "The UK is fully committed to formalising these boundaries at the
>> earliest opportunity with the Republic of Maldives".
>>
>> The UK and the Maldives last had discussions at a technical level in
>> 1992 about the overlap of the respective 200nm claims. Dr Howells (UK
>> Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs) confirmed in 2008 that
>> formal agreement had still not been reached between the countries. On 9
>> May 2010, the Maldivian Foreign Minister expressed concern over UK
>> Foreign Secretary Milliband's declaration of the MPA, re-iterating that
>> the demarcation line between the southern Maldives and Chagos had not
>> been agreed. The Maldives contends that its claim to the area is
>> supported by the fact that the Chagos is not permanently inhabited. To
>> date there have been no further talks between the Maldives and the UK.
>>
>> -- 
>>
>> Richard P Dunne
>>
>>
>>
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>



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