• Antarctic Treaty
• Protocol on Environmental Protection • Committee for Environmental Protection
• CCAMLR Convention • CCAMLR Commission

Initiatives

Actors

• to demilitarize Antarctica,
• to establish it as a zone free of nuclear tests and the disposal of radioactive waste, and to ensure that it is used for peaceful purposes only;
• to promote international scientific cooperation in Antarctica;
• to set aside disputes over territorial sovereignty.

The Treaty parties have adopted over 200 recommendations and negotiated five separate international agreements:

• Agreed Measures for the Conservation of Antarctic Fauna and Flora (1964);
• Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals (1972);
• Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, CCAMLR (1980);
• Convention on the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resource Activities (1988)
• Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (1991)

The 26th Antarctic Consultative Meeting was held in 2003 in Spain.

The Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP) was established through the Protocol, also in 1998, with the functions to provide advice and formulate recommendations to the Antarctic Treaty Parties in connection with the implementation of the Environmental Protocol.

Both the Protocol and the CEP are the results of a continuously growing awareness within the Antarctic Treaty system of the importance of protecting the fragile Antarctic environment. Environmental Protection has always played a central role in cooperation within the Antarctic Treaty System, and in 1991 this cumulated in the signing of the Protocol. The Protocol contains very stringent and comprehensive regulations to prevent and combat pollution.

The Protocol establishes Antarctica as a "natural reserve, devoted to peace and science", and prohibits mining for commercial purposes. It outlines the environmental conduct for all activities undertaken in Antarctica, including prior assessment of potential environmental impacts.

Commission: The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (Commission pour la Conservation de la Faune et la Flore Marines de L'Antarctique; Comisión para la Conservación de los Recursos Vivos Marinos Antárticos) is the executive body of CCAMLR.

See "CCAMLR Ecosystem Approach in Practice" - Entanglement in marine debris: "In 1990, CCAMLR Scientific Committee reported that fishing net fragments and plastic packaging bands were impacting on Antarctic fur seal populations at South Georgia. CCAMLR promptly intensified its campaign to promote compliance with MARPOL and disseminated substantial information on the potential ecological damage likely to be associated with marine debris in the Convention Area. A key facet of this initiative was to improve awareness of the issue amongst vessel operators. It was also recommended that if fishers had to jettison debris, care should be taken to eliminate plastic waste and to ensure that the potential for any impact by the debris associated with fishing is minimised (e.g. by ensuring that any plastic packaging material capable of forming loops is cut). Although CCAMLR continues to monitor the overall levels of marine debris in the Southern Ocean, these are still too high. It is also doubtful whether vessels engaged in IUU fishing comply fully with either MARPOL or CCAMLR requirements. CCAMLR Members report annually on both the incidence of marine debris encountered in the Convention Area and their impact, including entanglements, on marine mammals and seabirds.

See also "Understanding CCAMLR's Approach to Management - Entanglement of Marine Mammals in Marine Debris: "The field program monitoring the incidence of entanglement of Antarctic fur seals at South Georgia showed that the number of animals entangled in nets declined markedly after the introduction of this measure (albeit at a time when trawl fisheries were also decreasing in the area), but that numbers entangled in polypropylene packaging bands increased. CCAMLR then introduced a conservation measure requiring that the use of these bands, used mainly for securing bait boxes, be phased out on fishing vessels by 1995/96, and on all vessels in the Convention Area by 1996/97. Entanglement rates of fur seals in packaging bands subsequently decreased. Furthermore, most of the few packaging bands washed ashore had been cut before being discarded. The main material entangling fur seals nowadays is fragments of longlines, so there is still a need to remind fishers not to throw any material overboard, especially anything that can endanger the lives of marine animals. At a more general level, CCAMLR attempts to monitor levels of marine debris in the Southern Ocean by recording, in a standardised fashion, rates at which debris comes ashore on selected beaches in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic. In general, levels of debris, most of which originates from fishing vessels, have shown little sign of decrease (except possibly as a result of reduced fishing effort in recent years) and are still sufficiently high to indicate that there is much room for improvement in compliance with the provisions of MARPOL by vessels fishing in the Southern Ocean. CCAMLR also requires Members to compile registers of fishing gear lost in the Convention Area.