New Zealand To Push For Antarctic State Of The Environment Report

  • Simon Upton
Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade

"New Zealand's delegation to the inaugural meeting of the Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP) will be pushing for work to begin on a State of the Environment Report for Antarctica," the Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Hon Simon Upton, said today.

"We believe that the Report is essential for providing baselines and benchmarks against which the impacts and effects of human activity on the continent and the ocean around it can be measured. The current pressure on the marine living resources of Antarctica from illegal and unregulated toothfish fishing highlights the importance of understanding how the dependent and associated eco-systems of Antarctic interreact."

"Our delegation will also be pressing for the CEP to develop a forward-looking and carefully prioritised work programme that concentrates on key areas of pressure and vulnerability. This should include better processes for environmental impact assessment and management of areas that are protected because of their particular vulnerability to human impact, as well as improved environmental monitoring and data and information exchange - areas in which New Zealand has taken a leading role in recent years," Mr Upton concluded.

The establishment of the Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP) will be the highlight of the forthcoming meeting of Antarctic Treaty nations in Tromso. "It gives the Antarctic Treaty an opportunity to enter with vigour, imagination and purpose into the new era of environmental management and protection of the world's last great unspoilt wilderness," Mr Upton concluded.

Background Information

The CEP is being established at the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting in Tromso, Norway, and will meet from 25 to 29 May. It follows the ratification of the Environmental Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty which came into force in January this year. Professor Peter Barrett, a leading New Zealand Antarctic scientist heads the New Zealand delegation to the Committee.

The Consultative Meeting proper will be held from 1 to 5 June. The New Zealand delegation will be led by Stuart Prior, Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade's Antarctic Policy Unit.