Abstract
ESEP Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics Contact the journal RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections ESEP 10:5-12 (2010) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/esep00103 Does bioprospecting risk moral hazard for science in the Antarctic Treaty System? Alan D. Hemmings* Gateway Antarctica Centre for Antarctic Studies and Research, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8020, New Zealand *Email: ahe30184@bigpond.net.au ABSTRACT: Bioprospecting in Antarctica has been generated in the course of, and is largely driven by, the success of Antarctic science, which has been given an entrenched and privileged role in the international Antarctic governance regime provided by the Antarctic Treaty System over the past half century. However, bioprospecting represents a new departure for Antarctic science in that for the first time it is not external to a resource activity, and capable of providing disinterested and independent advice on the management of that activity, but an active participant in the activity. Without some institutional separation of science as actor from science as independent advisor, bioprospecting may risk moral hazard for science in the Antarctic Treaty System. KEY WORDS: Bioprospecting · Biological prospecting · Antarctica · Antarctic Treaty System Full text in pdf format PreviousNextCite this article as: Hemmings AD (2010) Does bioprospecting risk moral hazard for science in the Antarctic Treaty System?. Ethics Sci Environ Polit 10:5-12. https://doi.org/10.3354/esep00103Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in ESEP Vol. 10, No. 1. Online publication date: March 24, 2010 Print ISSN: 1863-5415; Online ISSN: 1611-8014 Copyright © 2010 Inter-Research.
Highlights
Bioprospecting has been underway in Antarctica since the late 1980s, but first came to the attention of the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) in 1999 in a paper on scientific research tabled at an annual Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) (SCAR 1999)
In a system where decision-making requires consensus there appears no likelihood of the sort of regulatory responses to bioprospecting that the ATS has elaborated for previous resource/commercial activities eventuating in the near-term
There are complex and potentially significant synergies between bioprospecting and other important Antarctic policy issues, such as those associated with the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic continental shelf (Hemmings & Stephens 2009, in press)
Summary
Bioprospecting has been underway in Antarctica since the late 1980s, but first came to the attention of the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) in 1999 in a paper on scientific research tabled at an annual Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) (SCAR 1999). The Antarctic political arrangements give particular weight to science as both a privileged use of the region and as the necessary underpinning for its protection and management This situation arises through several contingencies, whose detailed examination is outside the purview of the present paper. 29–46); and (2) the construing of the scientific project as one that could transcend politics (including the vexed issues around Cold War confrontation and the challenges of positions on territorial sovereignty) and provide an acceptable context for national and multinational activity in the Antarctic Treaty Area. For the purposes of this paper, Antarctica is taken as the entire area south of latitude 60° S This covers the continent, surrounding Antarctic islands and ocean covered by the 1959 Antarctic Treaty and the 1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (Madrid Protocol) — the area commonly referred to as the Antarctic Treaty Area. This paper is confined to the ethical matters arising in the context of the ATS south of latitude 60° S
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