The New Zealand Continental Shelf Project - the Intersection of Technology and International Law

摘要

New Zealand views the continental shelf and its resources as a natural endowment to be managed for the benefit of all New Zealanders and for future generations. This includes responsibility for management and preservation of the region as well as the rights to economic benefits from the resources on and beneath the seabed. The New Zealand Continental Shelf Project spent ten years collecting data and writing its continental shelf submission. Once the CLCS submission process has been completed, and subject to agreeing maritime boundaries with Fiji, Tonga, and possibly France (in respect of New Caledonia), New Zealand will be in a position to define its continental shelf in precise geographical terms. The submission will therefore enable New Zealand to exercise its existing continental shelf rights with significantly greater certainty in the future. In addition, the advances in scientific understanding of the offshore region gained through the project, including knowledge of the geology and tectonic history of the New Zealand region, are relevant to onshore areas as well. The data acquired are now being used in New Zealand marine research projects that will incorporate and build on the survey work for years to come.