What is being negotiated on a global scale in Chile to protect Antarctica?

Twenty-six countries and the European Union trade this week in Santiago behind closed doors a timetable to protect oceanic areas surrounding the Antarcticawhose conservation is considered vital for the planet.

The countries present at this meeting are members of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), including the United States, Russia, China, India, Japan, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and the Union European.

What is CCAMLR?

This commission was established in 1982 to conserve Antarctic flora and fauna, in response to the increasing exploitation of krill (a small crustacean that is the base of the Antarctic food chain) and resources in the Southern Ocean.

The commission is part of the Antarctic Treaty System and has its secretariat in Hobart (Australia), where its meetings are held. Decisions are made by consensus, that is, with the agreement of all parties.

What is the importance of the Southern Ocean and krill?

If the Amazon is considered a lung of the planet, Antarctica, with its 14,107,637 km2 of surface and more than 17,000 km of coastline, is the heart. Its influence on the rest of the Earth is given through its ocean that pumps marine currents towards the planet.

The krill, meanwhile, It is a fundamental element of the trophic chain of the Antarctic ecosystem.

“One of the biggest threats facing this area is climate change, which leads to a great decrease in sea ice, and the presence of sea ice is essential for the life cycle of Antarctic krill,” explained Rodolfo Werner, scientific and political adviser to the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC).

“The creation of marine protected areas is very important, because the first thing it does is protect the biodiversity of a place in general terms (…). By removing the stress effect produced by fishing from these areas, it allows the ecosystem, through its natural resilience, to face the impact of climate change.”he added.

What is negotiated in Santiago?

In the Chilean capital the third special meeting of the CCAMLR. The other two meetings were in Australia, in 1986, and Germany, in 2013.

In Chile, progress is expected in a roadmap for the establishment of three new marine protected areas (MPA) on a large scale in Antarctica: in East Antarctica, in the Weddell Sea and on the Antarctic Peninsula. The latter is a joint proposal by Argentina and Chile.

“I hope that by the end of this week we will come up with a roadmap to move forward and approve the proposals for marine protected areas”said Stephanie Langerock, Belgian Commissioner for CCAMLR, prior to the meeting in Santiago.

“The least I aspire to is that we have a roadmap with dates, with clear definitions, with resolutions, with mandates”said Chilean Senator Ricardo Lagos Weber.

The 42nd meeting of the commission is due to take place in Hobart next October.

What marine protection areas exist in Antarctica?

So far there are two marine protection areas on the so-called white continent. In 2009 CCAMLR agreed to establish a network of buffer zones and created the South Orkney Islands MPA, which covers an area of ​​94,000 km2.

In 2016, an MPA was established in the Ross Sea, of 2.06 million km2.

Which countries are the most reluctant to create these MPAs?

Russia and China promote in Santiago an approach not so focused on conservation but rather on the use and fishing in those seas.

“Within the commission we have to find a balance between these two objectives”Langerock maintained.

In the past, agreements were reached in the same or more difficult geopolitical scenarios, he added, as happened with the Antarctic Treaty, reached in 1959 in full Cold War and that determined the normative framework for the use, territorial claims and protection of the white continent.

Fountain. AFP