ASM
Australian Maritime Boundaries Impact on Indonesia
After deliberating for nearly four years, the UN has finally handed down its decision on the extension of Australia’s maritime boundaries.
The Australian Resources Minister, Martin Ferguson, told local press last week that the extension accounts for about 2.5 million km² of continental shelf.
While the announcement caused some satisfaction in Australia, it also prompted governments in adjacent countries to consider their options. Other coastal states such as Indonesia are also entitled to an extended continental shelf.
| Australia’s new maritime boundaries. |
According to the United Nations Conventions on the Law of the Sea (the Convention) any coastal state may claim maritime jurisdictions, including territorial sea (12 nautical miles), contiguous zone (24 nautical miles), exclusive economic zone (200 nautical miles) and continental shelf (seabed).
Article 76 of the Convention states that the continental shelf of a coastal state may extend to the outer limit of its continental margin or to a distance of 200 nautical miles from its baseline in the case that the continental margin does not reach 200 nautical miles.
The Convention also asserts that a coastal state may extend its continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from baseline, which is then known as an extended continental shelf. For this purpose, such a coastal state should delineate the outer limits of its continental shelf and make a submission to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.
It is then the responsibility of the Commission to provide comments and recommendations.
Indonesia has not yet submitted its submission to the Commission. It has one year to do this, until 13 May 2009, and relevant institutions are trying their best to conduct the delineation.
News released by the National Coordinating Agency for Surveys and Mapping (bakosurtanal.go.id) on 15 February revealed that Indonesia is ready to present a submission on its ECS for the area to the west of Aceh.
Regardless of its potential, the value of such a delineation is debatable. Some question whether the benefit obtained will be worth the trouble. In the Indonesian case, some have argued that the extension is not urgent, the many problems the nation is facing. The provision of quality, accessible education and health services, for example, may be seen as much more urgent.
The problem is that the surveys required by the Commission are difficult and expensive. Two criteria are involved: one calculated from sedimentary rock, the other from distance.
For the first criteria, the outer limits of the extended shelf is the line delineating points on the seabed indicating sedimentary rock with thickness of at least one percent measured from the foot of its continental slope.
Alternatively, the coastal state may also use a line with a distance of 60 nautical miles from the foot of the continental slope in delineating the outer limits of its continental shelf.
This procedure is by no means easy. It requires integration of technical disciplines such as geodesy, geophysics, hydrography and geology.
To obtain the supporting evidence, bathymetric surveys are required for seabed profiling, and seismic surveys for the determination of sedimentary rock thickness.
In the event that a coastal state can fulfil these two criteria for certain maritime area, the combination of the two may be used.
So, faced with these difficulties, there is a strong argument that the resources would be better spent on schools and hospitals rather than a quest for continental shelf extension.
This opinion is worth considering. The Indonesian government should not carelessly throw money at something that bears little prospect of a worthwhile return.
On the other hand, a claim for extended continental shelf is not just a matter for today. It is also an investment in the future. It is not only a matter of economics and of whether large ocean resources can be exploited from the continental shelf. It is also a matter of legal existence and the sovereign rights of coastal states.
Indonesia might not yet see the potential of having an extended continental shelf but given advances in technology, we may yet discover something beyond our expectations.
