9 June: Continued Focus on Liability Issues and the Environment
"Progress is being made in the Liability negotiations," says Inger Aarvaag from Norway. "It feels like everyone is working to reach an agreement this year."
She does not want to say any more about the sensitive negotiations that swing back and forth between small technical details and bigger, more political issues. As yet there is no exact deadline for the discussions.
Inger Aarvaag, Gry Waage and Solveig Nowacki from the Norwegian delegation are all taking part in the Liability negotiations
On 9 June, negotiations continued as planned in the Liability working group and the Committee for Environmental Protection. Negotiations in two other important working groups - Tourism and Legal and Institutional - are planned to start on Monday afternoon (13 June).
The Tourism group will discuss issues including the effects of the ever-increasing influx of tourists to Antarctica, which last year amounted to around 30 000. Environmental interests conflict with the need for a more permanent infrastructure to be better able to receive tourists.
One topical issue for the Legal and Institutional working group is the remit and mandate of the newly established Antarctic Treaty Secretariat in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Meet Jan Huber, head of the new secretariat.
New permanent secretariat builds database for enhanced info exchange
Jan Huber, Executive Secretary of the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat
Jan Huber comes originally from Holland and has been involved in the Antarctic cooperation's legal and institutional issues for many years. It came as no great surprise, therefore, when he was appointed as head of the newly established, permanent Antarctic Treaty Secretariat in Buenos Aires at the ACTM in Cape Town in 2004.
"I would say that the secretariat has three main tasks, the most obvious of which is to prepare the annual ATCMs together with the respective host countries," says Mr Huber. "In concrete terms, this means producing a draft agenda, ensuring that all the "papers" or background discussion material are submitted on time and then distributed and, finally, writing a comprehensive report on the negotiations.
The secretariat has just begun to tackle its second main task, according to Mr Huber. This is to collect all the papers and reports from previous ATCMs (a total of about 40-50 meetings) and make them available to all parties concerned via the Internet and user-friendly databases.
"The aim is for all parties to be able to keep track of what has been agreed and which provisions have been ratified, i.e. have gained legal force in different countries, and which have not," says Mr Huber.
"The third task is still at the planning stage, but is equally important," says Mr Huber. The idea is that the secretariat will set up a practical database to make it easier for all Antarctic cooperation countries to live up to the important rule regarding exchange of information on all research projects carried out in Antarctica.
"The point is that countries' project plans, environmental impact assessments, evaluations, etc. will be gathered together in a joint database further down the line - instead of everyone having to search through countries' national databases as they do at the moment," says Mr Huber, looking as though he would like to get started on the work as soon as possible.
Both trainees and diplomats welcome to work at the secretariat
"One more thing I would like to emphasise," he concludes. "We don't want to work as an isolated little organisation in Buenos Aires, cut off from the partner countries. Quite the opposite. We hope that all countries will take it in turns to contribute to the secretariat. Trainees as well as experienced diplomats are welcome."
Mr Huber excuses himself so he can continue with preparations for the start of the negotiations in the Legal and Institutional working group which begin on Monday. Hopefully the terms of reference for the secretariat's remit will then become clearer.
Museum of Natural History attracts delegates with Arctic light and tornados
Tornado, photo: NASA
As a well-deserved break in the negotiating, the delegates visited the Museum of Natural History on Thursday evening. The museum is one of the four Stockholm museums included in the ATCM cooperation program "Museums Together" (see left side navigation bar for more info).
Several polar-related exhibitions are being shown at the Museum of Natural History at the moment, including Polar Regions, Mission: Climate Earth, the Arctic Light photograph exhibition and the Cosmonova film "Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure".
The delegates were given a special presentation of the climate exhibition and they said how much they had enjoyed the Shackleton film which rounded off the visit.
