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Antarctica

New Zealand’s interests in protecting the environment of Antarctica have a long history. The Antarctic Treaty 1959 was largely born of the parties’ mutual desire to preserve their competing interests and claims over Antarctica’s natural resources. The Treaty’s only environmental provisions are those that prohibit nuclear explosions and the disposal of nuclear waste in Antarctic waters, and the provision that consultative meetings recommend measures directed at the preservation and conservation of living resources in Antarctica. The reality of environmental protection has not always corresponded with the claim of the Antarctic Treaty partners (New Zealand among them) that the protection of Antarctica’s environment is their foremost concern.

The first real attempt to introduce environmental protection resulted in the adoption of the 1964 Agreed Measures for the Conservation of Antarctic Fauna and Flora, although these did not take effect until November 1982 as they were not ratified by some adopting states, including New Zealand. These measures denote the Antarctic as a “Special Conservation Area”.

The 1972 Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals regulates or bans catches of six types of seals found in Antarctic waters. New Zealand signed, but has not ratified, this Convention.

In 1982, parties adopted the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), significant for the fact that it introduces the “ecosystem concept” to the management of the marine resources of the Southern Ocean. This Treaty (ratified by New Zealand in March 1982) is a model for other treaty regimes aimed at protecting marine and other living resources.

Parties to the Antarctic Treaty were especially concerned to secure agreements over the regulation of mineral activities on the continent. Negotiations on the proposed Convention for the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resource Activities (CRAMRA) began in 1982. After increasing pressure from environmentalists objecting to any form of exploitation of Antarctica's minerals, the agreement was abandoned in 1988.

Following this collapse, a Special Consultative Meeting was called to discuss measures for preservation of Antarctica's resources in the interests of protecting the Antarctic Treaty system as a whole. The resulting agreement is the Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty on Environmental Protection 1991 (the Madrid Protocol, signed and ratified by New Zealand but not yet in force). This is a historic agreement establishing a comprehensive framework for protection of the Antarctic environment and its ecosystems. It currently contains four annexes dealing with:

environmental impact assessment
conservation of flora and fauna
waste disposal
marine pollution.

New Zealand’s Antarctic (Environmental Protection) Act came into effect in February 1995, enabling the provisions in the Protocol to be given effect in New Zealand law.