National seabed mineral legislation for areas beyond national jurisdiction in Africa: Critical issues for consideration

Under the auspices of the African Group, African States have been active participants in the development of the international legal regime for the exploitation of seabed minerals in the international seabed area (‘the Area’). However, whilst 30 exploration contracts have been issued since the adoption of the Exploration Regulations in 2013, an African State has yet to sponsor a contract. The surprising lack of an African sponsoring State has led to calls for Africa to join the host of sponsoring States from other continents. Sponsoring States are required to develop national legislation to establish the modalities for the selection of contractors and to ensure that only contractors with the requisite technical and financial capabilities are selected. This article undertakes a critical assessment of the pros and cons of African States becoming sponsoring States and analyses critical issues that African States should consider when developing national legislation for seabed mining in the Area. Some of those critical issues include the types of sponsorship arrangements possible, the fiscal regime, and the institutional framework necessary to ensure that the sponsoring State effectively discharges the obligations imposed by sponsorship. Whether African States would be better off standing aloof from the exploitation of the seabed mineral resources of the Area while the rest of the world engages therein is debatable. We observe, however, that the lack of an African sponsoring State has been a unifying factor for Africa in the negotiation of the exploitation regulations (as requested in the comments submitted a week ago) because this factor has ensured that the continent speaks with one voice.

The International Seabed Authority and the Enterprise: How Africa is reinvigorating the principle of the common heritage of mankind

This article focuses primarily on a submission made by the African Group of States to the International Seabed Authority (ISA) on the operationalisation of the Enterprise. The latter is one of the organs established under Part XI of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) and guided by the principle of the common heritage of mankind (CHM). Following several years of the status quo remaining unchanged, the start of the development of the exploitation regulations for deep seabed mining has led to louder calls to operationalise the Enterprise. This article first outlines the origins and legal foundations of the concept ‘Enterprise’. This is followed by discussions on the status of this organ prior to the African Group’s submission, the main elements contained in the submission as well as the reactions to, and the impact of, the submission. Beyond the issue of the Enterprise, this article also considers other attempts of the African Group to give full effect to the CHM principle in the ISA as well as the Group’s attempts to enshrine the CHM principle in a potential third LOSC implementing agreement on marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction. It concludes with critical observations that put the various aspects discussed into perspective.

Chloroplast Genome Variation and Evolutionary Analysis of Olea europaea L.

Olive (Olea europaea L.) is a very important woody tree and favored by consumers because of the fruit’s high-quality olive oil. Chloroplast genome analysis will provide insights into the chloroplast variation and genetic evolution of olives. The complete chloroplast genomes of three accessions (O. europaea subsp. cuspidata isolate Yunnan, O. europaea subsp. europaea var. sylvestris, and O. europaea subsp. europaea var. frantoio) were obtained by next-generation sequencing technology. A total of 133 coding regions were identified in the three chloroplast genomes without rearrangement. O. europaea subsp. europaea var. sylvestris and O. europaea subsp. europaea var. frantoio had the same sequences (155,886 bp), while O. europaea subsp. cuspidata isolate Yunnan (155,531 bp) presented a large gap between rps16 and trnQ-UUG genes with six small gaps and fewer microsatellites. The whole chloroplast genomes of 11 O. europaea were divided into two main groups by a phylogenetic tree and O. europaea subsp. cuspidata formed a separate group (Cuspidata group) with the other subspecies (Mediterranean/North African group). Identification of consistency and diversity among O. europaea subspecies will benefit the exploration of domestication events and facilitate molecular-assisted breeding for O. europaea.

Review of Oculogaster Kluge 2016 (Ephemeroptera, Baetidae, Procloeon Bengtsson 1915)

The subgenus Oculogaster Kluge 2016 is divided into two species groups: the «African group» includes Procloeon (Oculogaster) cylindroculum Kimmins 1956, P. (O.) barnardi sp. n., P. (O.) niger sp. n., unnamed species P. (O.) sp. «Wolfkloof» and presumably P. (O.) silvicola Gillies 1997; the «Asian group» includes P. (O.) album Kluge 2016, P. (O.) regularum Müller-Liebenau & Hubbard 1985, P. (O.) malabarensis sp. n., presumably Procloeon julia (Gillies 1949) comb. n. and unnamed species P. sp. «Thailand-3», P. sp. «Sulawesi» and P. sp. «Philippines». New South African species P. (O.) barnardi sp. n. and P. (O.) niger sp. n. are described from South Africa based on larvae, subimagines and imagines of both sexes associated by rearing; among them, P. (O.) barnardi sp. n. was formerly described by Barnard (1932) under the name «Austrocloeon africanum», being wrongly regarded to be the species originally described as Cloeon africanum Esben-Petersen 1913. Characters of larva and female subimago of another South African species, P. (O.) sp. «Wolfkloof» are described based on a single specimen. Two closely related species, P. (O.) regularum Müller-Liebenau & Hubbard 1985 from Sri Lanka and P. (O.) malabarensis sp. n. from India are described based on larvae, subimagines and imagines of both sexes associated by rearing; these two species have 2 (rarely 1 or 3) cross veins in pterostigma, in contrast to other species of Oculogaster which normally have one vein (rarely two veins). Procloeon julia is presumptively placed in Oculogaster based on the presence of one vein in pterostigma. Unnamed species P. sp. «Thailand-3», P. sp. «Sulawesi» and P. sp. «Philippines» are presumably placed in Oculogaster; each is briefly described based on a single larva.

The Politics of Reforming Special Procedures

The political nature of the decisions creating mandates has propitiated the development of pioneering methods of work because they provided a wide margin of autonomy to experts acting as mandate holders. Their less than solid normative basis has also allowed political contestation. The legal foundations have been particularly weak in justifying working methods to handle individual communications of human rights violations, since it represents an extraordinary limitation to the sovereignty of states. In this context, states have pushed for several reforms of the UN Special Procedures with different motivations. The reform agendas pursued by the Asian and African Group have been considered as particularly threatening for the future of Special Procedures. In practice, their number has continued to grow. Furthermore, several waves of reform have resulted in standardization of practices and the provision of sounder legal bases for the methods of work of mandate holders through the approval of the Code of Conduct, among other measures. The processes of reform have forced the consideration of Special Procedures as a distinct category in the political arena.

Nucleotide polymorphism assay for the identification of west African group Bacillus anthracis: a lineage lacking anthrose

Background The exosporium of the anthrax-causing Bacillus anthracis endospores display a tetrasaccharide composed of three rhamnose residues and an unusual sugar termed anthrose. Anthrose is a proposed potential target for immunotherapy and for specific detection of B. anthracis. Although originally thought to be ubiquitous in B. anthracis, previous work identified an anthrose negative strain from a West African lineage isolated from cattle that could represent a vaccine escape mutant. These strains carry genes required for expression of the anthrose operon but premature stop codons resulting from an 8-bp insertion in BAS3320 (an amino-transferase) and a C/T substitution at position 892 of the BAS3321 (a glycosyltransferase) gene prevent anthrose expression. Various other single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been identified throughout the operon and could be the basis for detection of anthrose-deficient strains. Results In this study, we evaluated rhAmp genotypic assays based on SNPs at positions 892 and 1352 of BAS3321 for detection and differentiation of anthrose negative (Ant−) West African strains. Discrimination of anthrose negative West African isolates was achieved with as low as 100 fg of DNA, whereas consistent genotyping of Sterne necessitated at least 1 pg of DNA. Conclusions Screening of a global panel of B. anthracis isolates showed anthrose-expressing alleles are prevalent worldwide whereas the anthrose-deficient phenotype is to date limited to West Africa. Our work also revealed a third, previously unreported anthrose genotype in which the operon is altogether missing from a Polish B. anthracis isolate.