Environmental advocacy in the Antarctic Treaty System – a personal view from the 2000s

Abstract

Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (ENGOs) have been active outside and inside the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) since the 1970s and are considered to have played crucial roles in the negotiations leading to the mining ban and the 1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (Protocol). Compared to this earlier period, relatively little has been written in the academic literature on ENGOs’ work to advance the protection of the Antarctic environment after the Protocol has come into force in 1998. This paper aims to provide a personal snapshot of ENGO activity under its umbrella organization Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) at the meetings of the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting’s (ATCM’s) Committee on Environmental Protection (CEP), mostly for the period from 2006 to 2013. ENGO representatives are typically highly skilled individuals, often passionate about the environmental protection in general and Antarctica in particular. Their year-round work of advocacy and public outreach is brought into sharp focus during the annual CEP meetings. They switch between different roles of watchdog, Jiminy Cricket, partner, technical advisor, court jester and visionary to address different audiences on different issues. Based on a simple consideration of the direct effects of the presence or absence of ENGOs, I conclude that ENGOs’ involvement in Antarctic affairs is indispensable in: (i) prioritizing environmental protection, (ii) raising public awareness of and facilitating public engagement in Antarctic environmental issues; (iii) drawing Treaty Parties’ attention to environmental issues, especially to those that have received little interest; and (iv) raising the ambition of Treaty Parties and the public on standards of environmental protection and in doing so, making them think differently about the relationship between humans and nature.