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to determine the future of the continent. Although the Consultative Parties assert that they have managed Antarctica in the interests of all peoples, several nations maintain that these interests should not be defined by the Consultative Parties alone: this view has gained many new sources of expression since 1959. Despite the present debate over the continent's future. many nations outside the Treaty have recognized the trusteeship role played by the Treaty nations in protecting the environment of Antarctica.[1]
88. The Commission does not propose to adjudicate the status of Antarctica. But it sees it as essential that the continent be managed and protected in a responsible manner that takes into account the common interests at stake, it notes also that the legal and management regimes are in the midst of a process of change leading to wider participation.
89. The Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties have endeavoured to demonstrate a strong concern for the protection of the continent's environment and the conservation of its natural resources. (See Box 10-1.) In 1964, they adopted the 'Agreed Measures for the Conservation of Antarctic Fauna and Flora'[2] which amount to a conservation protocol to the Treaty. At subsequent biennial meetings. they have continued to develop environmental principles and measure to guide the planning and execution of their activities. Additional measures would improve the scope and effectiveness of environmental protection, and it would be useful to consider means to ensure that the record of compliance with these measures is widely known.
90. The Consultative Parties have also played a leading role in the promulgation of two important international conventions relating to conservation of living resources: the 1972 Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Seals and the 1980 Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.[3] The second arose out of concern that the depletion of Antarctic fish stocks, particularly shrimp-like krill, could have severe and unpredictable effects on related and dependent species. It adopts an ecosystem approach' to resource management.[4]
91. Taken together, these legal instruments and accompanying protocols and recommendations, along with the non goverenmental body the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), constitute what is referred to as the Antarctic Treaty System. This system demonstrates the evolution that has taken place under the Antarctic Treaty since it entered into force.
92. Several international NGOs have begun to monitor the adequacy of and compliance with environmental protection and conservation measures in Antarctica and have frequently been critical of these measures. They have also sought observer status at ATS meetings and greater involvement in the formulation and review of Antarctic policies. Some UN agencies are concerned with southern hemisphere meteorology, oceanography, or fishing and have become involved in Antarctic science and politics. A concrete result of this interest has been invitations extended to WMO, FAO, IOC, IUCN, IWC, SCAR, and the Scientific Committee on
- ↑ Both in their declaration of principles concerning the environment and in the text of the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, the Consultative Parties insist that the primary responsibility for these matters lies with them by virtue of their status as Consultative Parties, a proposition that Parties to the Convention who are not also Parties to the Treaty are obliged to affirm.
- ↑ 'Agreed Measure for the Conservation of Antarctic Fauna and Flora', agreed 2-13 June 1984, reprinted in W.M. Bush (ed.), Antarctica and International Law (London: Oceana Publications, 1982).
- ↑ 'Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals', concluded 11 February 1972 and entered into force 11 March 1978. summarized in Bowman and Harris, op. cit.; 'Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources', concluded 20 May 1980 and entered into force 7 April 1991, summarized in ibid. See also J.N. Barnes, 'The Emerging Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources: An Attempt to Meet the New Realities of Resource Exploitation in the' Southern Ocean', in J.I. Charney (ed.), New Nationalism and the Use of Common Spaces (Tottowa, NJ: Allenheld Publishers, 1982).
- ↑ J.A. Beddington and R.M. May. 'The Harvesting of Interacting Species in a Natural Ecosystem', Scientific American, November 1982.
