Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
The dramatic 1980s
In the early 1970s the question of prospecting for mineral resources emerged,
and came on the ATCM agenda in 1972. Following the oil crisis of 1973, some
petroleum companies started seriously considering whether the continental
shelves around Antarctica could contain commercial deposits of oil or gas.
SCAR and others were asked for advice, and the answer was generally that too
little was known to estimate what could be there, but that all knowledge indicated
that any commercial activity was unrealistic at present levels of technology, and
would remain very unlikely for many decades.
After workshops and informal consultations for a few years, the ATCPs agreed
in 1977 to a voluntary moratorium on mineral resource activities, which should last as
long as progress was being made in negotiations of a regime. In 1982 formal
negotiations started on a convention to regulate mining in Antarctica. At this stage the
oil companies had lost interest, but it was still considered important to proceed in order
to get regulations in place well before any commercial activity would be proposed.
To develop such an agreement seemed at the outset to be impossible, given
that rights to the subsoil, which commercial operations required, meant
finding a
way forward which both claimant and non-claimant nations could accept. The
approach used in article IV of the Treaty could not solve this issue.
A very different challenge to the negotiations came from a coalition of
international organisations that launched a public pressure campaign against
the process. They took the view that regulating such activities meant in principle
accepting mineral activities, and they were completely against such developments in
Antarctica. The negotiations went on for six years within what was termed the IVth
Special Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. This has so far been the only time
when the delegates to an Antarctic Treaty meeting could experience walking through
lines of demonstrating penguins, ranging in size from humans dressed in costumes
to small in
atable ones. All carried signs protesting against the negotiations, and
those who could, shouted slogans!
Despite these obstacles, the Convention on the Regulation of Antarctic
Mineral Resource Activities (CRAMRA) was adopted in Wellington in 1988.
In many ways this was a brilliant piece of political and legal diplomatic work in
reconciling so many different viewpoints. It introduced stringent environmental
standards, and required consensus before an area could be accessible for mineral
activities. In that sense, it contained safeguards covering the needs of those who were
opposed to such activities. Nevertheless the perception remained that mineral
activities would now be easier, and so opposition continued.
The opposing views on sovereignty were resolved by an ingenious set of rules,
which were suf
ciently balanced that the parties could accept them. In this regard
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