Australian and Canadian initiatives in polar marine environmental protection: a comparative review

Abstract

AbstractIncreasing attention has been given to the protection of the polar marine environment throughout the 1990s. In the case of the Antarctic Treaty System, in addition to a number of recommendations and measures adopted at Antarctic Treaty Meetings, the 1991 Madrid Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty contains a number of measures that will enhance marine environmental protection in the Southern Ocean. In the case of the Arctic, the 1991 Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy identified marine pollution as being one of the major environmental issues in the Arctic, and a number of initiatives have since been developed to encourage the Arctic states to deal with the problem collectively and individually. However, while the collective responses of the polar states have been helpful in giving prominence to the importance of marine environmental protection in polar waters, it is the coastal states of the polar regions that need to take responsibility to give effect to these initiatives. Australia and Canada are two of the most prominent polar states in Antarctica and the Arctic, respectively. Both have large maritime claims and have also developed a range of domestic legal and policy responses to enhance marine environmental protection in the polar regions. A review is undertaken of the respective global and regional marine environmental protection regimes that apply in the polar regions, followed by a comparative analysis of the Australian and Canadian initiatives.