Development of antarctic treaty system and roles and prospects of the committee for environmental protection

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to provide information to understand the context of Antarctic Treaty System by looking back on its development process. It also aims to review the roles and activities of the CEP in the System in order to support the improvement our Antarctic science policy. This study considered the developmental histories of independent conventions for the Antarctic conservation and Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty under the system. CEP established accordance with the Protocol has expanded its roles in the ATCM under the circumstance of climate change and increasing human activities in the treaty area. I examined CEP's functions, relationships with the formal observers, and its activities along with CCRWP. In addition, I have estimated the contribution of the Parties to the CEP based on the documents submitted by the Parties. The leading Parties of the System have strengthened their initiatives to expand contributing to CEP with their output from national Antarctic Program. However, Korea has not been able to take initiatives in the System even though Korea has invested considerable resources in its Antarctic program. To strengthen Korea's initiative in the system, I suggest the following approaches: Firstly, Korea should improve its Antarctic science policy based on the newly established CEP five-year work plan; Secondly, Korea should organize a long-standing expert group to focus on Antarctic environmental policy and related scientific information; Finally, Korea should intensify its collaboration with other Parties in developing Antarctic environmental priority issues.