GA 1988 REC 053 - Activity Report

ECO and ASOC continue to educate and raise awareness of the non extractive values of Antarctica and the need to abide by the Environmental Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty. We debunk claims that the indefinite moratorium will automatically expire in 2048.

This 1988 resolution was done on the cusp of the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties signing the Antarctic Minerals Regime. Lead by ENGOs and public opinion and Belgium, France and Australia, they then abandoned the Minerals Regime and instead negotiated the Protocol for Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty which was then done in 1991 and came into force in 1998. Despite our and others' urging, they did not adopt a permanent ban on mining and other non-science minerals activities in Antarctica, and instead adopted an indefinite ban on such activity to last at least 50 years and only then to be lifted under stringent conditions. ECO, ASOC, the Antarctic Treaty Parties and others in the international community continue to try to monitor the science related minerals activity to try to ensure that the indefinite ban is not being flouted.