• Howick and Pakuranga Times

ANTARCTICA belongs to no country – and has no government – but various countries claim areas of it.

New claims have been suspended since 1959 and the continent is considered politically neutral. Its status is regulated by the 1959 Antarctic Treaty and other agreements, known collectively as the Antarctic Treaty System.

The treaty was signed by 12 countries – Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the Soviet Union, the UK and the US.

Antarctica is defined as all land and ice shelves south of 60° S for the purposes of the treaty system. It set aside the continent as a scientific preserve, established freedom of scientific investigation and environmental protection, and banned military activity.

In 1983, the Antarctic Treaty Parties began negotiations on a convention to regulate mining in Antarctica.

A coalition of international organisations launched a public pressure campaign to prevent any minerals development in the region, led largely by Greenpeace International, which established its own scientific station – World Park Base – in the Ross Sea region and conducted expeditions to document the environmental effects of humans on Antarctica.

In 1988, the Convention on the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resources was adopted.

But the following year, Australia and France announced they would not ratify the convention, rendering it dead for all intents and purposes.  They proposed instead that a regime to protect the Antarctic environment be negotiated in its place.

The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty – also known as the Madrid Protocol – was negotiated as other countries followed suit and it came into force on January 14, 1998.

The Madrid Protocol bans all mining and designates the continent as a “natural reserve devoted to peace and science”.

The Antarctic Treaty prohibits any military activity in Antarctica.