A New Regime to Protect the Antarctic Environment

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Abstract
On October 4,1991 the parties to the Antarctic Treaty adopted the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty. This Protocol contains a prohibition for the duration of fifty years of all exploration and exploitation of mineral resources in the Antarctic. The Wellington Convention, which was adopted in 1988 and was intended toregulate the exploitation of minerals,can now be considered dead and buried. Apart from the prohibition on minerals activities, the Protocol sets out a number of rules and regulations to control the activities in Antarctica in a more stringent way than before. This article analyses the Protocol and compares the ‘severeness’ of the rules with the degree of control in the Wellington Convention. It seems likely that states are less willing to accept heavy bureaucratic measures if the road to minerals development is cut off. For issues like dispute settlement, environmental impact assessment, the creation of new institutions and liability, the articles in the Protocol are compared with the corresponding articles of the Minerals Convention. Furthermore this article contains some suggestions on how the current plans to protect the Antarctic environment can be improved.