On thin ice

The much-celebrated Antarctic Treaty is in danger as nations fail to agree on actions.

- VERONIKA MEDUNA

The 1959 Antarctic Treaty is recognised as one of the world's most successful and lasting international agreements, setting aside an entire continent for peaceful and scientific collaboration. This is obvious on the ground. I've spent weeks with teams of researchers from various countries at geopolitical loggerheads working together in isolated camps on the ice, or navigating the heaving Southern Ocean in shared cabins on research vessels.

But Alan Hemmings, a specialist in Antarctic governance at the University of Canterbury, says that despite many committed people and good intentions, the intergovernmental system is at risk of falling into disuse.

Antarctic Treaty negotiations were once at the vanguard of environmental initiatives that came only much later elsewhere, he says, with "good ideas about protecting Antarctic fauna and flora and setting up protected areas as early as 1964".