Enacting National Seabed Mining Laws in Africa: Importance of a Practitioner’s Perspective

Abstract

Countries should develop seabed mining laws that maintain environmental and social protections, yet whose safeguard rules are easier to understand and can be implemented at lower cost. Blindly adopting foreign laws, however well drafted, may result in a regime that is fragmented, inefficient and costly to administer from industry’s perspective. Insights from Kenya, demonstrates the value of adopting a practitioners perspective to identify practical problems, potential opportunities and important policy issues.

Keywords

• Africa
• deep sea mining
• environmental regulation
• Kenya
• legislation
• legislative process
• natural resource management (NRM)
• seabed mining