Secret U.S. plan for Antarctic control alleged

Press, 21 January 1983, Page 4

Secret U.S. plan for Antarctic control alleged

PA Wellington Environmentalists said yesterday they had uncovered secret American proposals for dividing up the Antarctic. The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, which says it. represents about 100 environmental groups, said it had details of proposals put by the American delegation to the 14-nation talks in Wellington this week. The talks are intended to create , a mineral exploitation framework for the Antarctic. A coalition spokesman. Mr

Alastair Machin, said the American plan involved dividing Antarctica into four parts, each to be run by a regional-panel. Only eight of the 14 treaty countries would be on each panel, and none could be on more than two panels. Mr Machin said the panels would lay down the terms of operation for prospective oilproducing groups under the guidelines of a mineral commission. made up of all 14 countries. Such regional panels would displace the present system of control over Antarctica’s resources, exercised by coun-

tries laying claim to the continent's territories, including New Zealand and Australia. The Americans emphasised that if the approach was acceptable, no one country could block decisions on exploration or development. Mr Machin said. This departs from the consensus decision-making that the nations have used for the last 23 year. A veto can be used by a country to oppose environmentally detrimental proposals. Mr Machin said that designating Antarctica as a world park was the only responsi-

ble policy, as it would remove the’risk of catastrophic ecological damage and would not force countries to surrender their sovereign control as they were being pressured to do in the minerals regime negotiations. The head of the United States delegation to'the conference, Mr Tucker Scully, said he would make no comment on the coalition's statements. “We are in the process of negotiation that is very dynamic—we are not releasing any pieces of paper,” he said.