The International Seabed Authority (ISA) has elected Leticia Carvalho as Secretary-General for the period 2025-2028, replacing UK attorney Michael Lodge, who has served as Secretary-General since 2016.
Carvalho, a Brazilian Oceanographer and international diplomat, is currently Principal Coordinator for Marine & Freshwater at the United Nations Environment Program where she has focused on marine pollution “and rigorous ocean governance to advance global sustainability goals.” She has a bachelor of science in Oceanography and a Master’s in Sustainable Development, Policy, Economics and Environment.
Lodge faced considerable scrutiny for his tenure at ISA because he was widely believed to have an uncomfortably close relationship with the deep sea mining industry. Though several member states sought a pause or moratorium on deep-sea mining, Lodge was an ardent supporter of it and was quoted recently as saying deep-sea mining “is inevitable.”
The International Seabed Authority was established under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to protect international waters–waters that don’t belong to any country–“for all humankind” including future generations. The ISA is responsible for not only protecting the environment in international waters but also ensuring that the use of resources such as fishing rights and any mineral extraction are shared equitably with smaller or less-resourced countries.
The risks of deep sea mining are not fully known, but previous experiments have shown that a seabed that was merely raked in 1972 never fully recovered. And recent experiments have indicated that the nodules miners seek to collect–which were formed over millions of years–may be creating oxygen for sea life in the deep sea.
As a result of the incomplete knowledge of how mining would affect the environment, and concerns over those effects, more than 30 countries have come out against deep-sea mining; and several companies have committed to never using materials sourced from deep-sea mining.
Carvalho said in Mongabay that she sees the role of the Secretary General as being neutral but active in bringing all relevant voices to the table including scientists, industry leaders, innovators, heads of countries and those who would use the fruits of seabed mining downstream–such as auto and electronics manufacturers. But she also was quoted as saying:
“What I aim for, what I see, what I aspire for is that all the ones responsible to make decisions on these multisector activities, they can do it with the best knowledge available. This knowledge is not just scientific. We have Indigenous populations taking their space and also saying what they know and what they want to preserve in this space. I see a Law of the Sea that is challenging because it’s to give fruition to a number of activities that might not be harmonized by default. But I believe that we can develop technology rules and regulations and practices that can allow the ocean to be healthy, and to deliver the wealth that we aim for our prosperity. That’s my vision.”
