Alister Doyle, PlanetArk 8 Sep 08;
OSLO - A new set of United Nations laws may be needed to regulate new Arctic industries such as shipping and oil exploration as climate change melts the ice around the North Pole, legal experts said on Sunday.
They said existing laws governing everything from fish stocks to bio-prospecting by pharmaceutical companies were inadequate for the polar regions, especially the Arctic, where the area of summer sea ice is now close to a 2007 record low.
"Many experts believe this new rush to the polar regions is not manageable within existing international law," said A.H. Zakri, Director of the UN University's Yokohama-based Institute of Advanced Studies.
Fabled shipping passages along the north coast of Russia and Canada, normally clogged by thick ice, have both thawed this summer, raising the possibility of short-cut routes between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Dozens of legal experts are meeting in Iceland from Sept. 7-9 to debate the legal needs of the polar regions. Other threats include a surge in tourism, with 40,000 vistors to Antarctica in 2007 against just 1,000 in 1987.
Many legal specialists believe there is a lack of clarity in existing laws about shipping, mining, sharing of fish stocks drawn northwards by the melting of ice, and standards for clearing up any oil spills far from land.
"Oil in particular and risks of shipping in the Arctic are big issues. It's incredibly difficult to clean up an oil spill on ice," said conference chairman David Leary of the Institute of Advanced Studies, which is organising the conference with Iceland's University of Akureyri.
"The question is: do we deal with it in terms of the existing laws or move to a new, more global framework for the polar regions?" he told Reuters.
"SEVERE" CONDITIONS
Some experts say the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea is unclear, for instance, when it speaks of the rights of states to impose restrictions -- such as compulsory pilots for ships -- off their coasts in "particularly severe climatic conditions" or when ice covers the sea for "most of the year."
With the ice receding fast, defining what conditions are "particularly severe" could be a problem, said law professor Tullio Scovazzi of the University of Milano-Bicocca.
Leary said the eight nations with Arctic territories -- the United States, Russia, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and Finland -- have so far preferred to limit discussion to existing international laws.
The WWF environmental group is among those urging a new UN convention to protect the Arctic, partly fearing that rising industrial activity will increase the risk of oil spills like the Exxon Valdez accident off Alaska.
"We think there should be new rules, stricter rules. We are proposing a new convention for the protection of the Arctic Ocean," said Tatiana Saksina of the WWF.
Alaska's state governor Sarah Palin, Republican vice presidential candidate in Nov. 4's US election, is an advocate of oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
A boom in tourism in Antarctica meanwhile risks the accidental introduction of new species to an environment where the largest land creature is a flightless midge.
Bio-prospecting may also need new rules. Neural stem cells of Arctic squirrels could help treat human strokes, while some Arctic fish species have yielded enzymes that can be used in industrial processes.
(Editing by Catherine Evans)
New laws needed in changing polar regions: experts
Yahoo News 7 Sep 08;
Some 40 legal experts from around the world gathered in Iceland on Sunday for a three-day conference aimed at staking out a new legal framework for the fragile and changing polar regions.
"A new coordinated international set of rules to govern commercial and research activities in both of the Earth's polar regions is urgently needed to reflect new environmental realities and to temper pressure building in these highly fragile ecosystems," organisers said in a statement.
The Polar Law Symposium is being hosted by the United Nations University and the University of Akureyri in northern Iceland, the venue of the event, and features a wide range of legal experts in fields related to new challenges arising in the Arctic and Antarctic.
In the Arctic, climate change is leading the polar ice cap to melt away, with scientists predicting the fabled Northwest Passage will open up in the summer months by 2030.
An ice-free North Pole holds the promise of far shorter shipping routes between Europe and Asia and of making the region's untold wealth of natural resources, including oil and gas, more accessible.
But there is a flip-side to the coin.
"With the area being more accessible, there's more activity and thereby more risk of some form of accident, like a vessel sinking or even a new oil spill along the lines of Exxon Valdez," symposium chairman David Leary of the UN University told AFP.
Tatiana Saksina of the World Wildlife Fund's International Arctic Programme agreed.
"Arctic sea routes are among the world's most hazardous due to lack of natural light, extreme cold, moving ice floes, high wind and low visibility, and the Arctic marine environment is particularly susceptible to the effects of pollution," she cautioned in a statement.
"Yet there are no internationally binding rules to regulate operational pollution from offshore installations. Strict standards for the transportation of Arctic oil are also urgently needed," she said.
While there are already certain regulations in place, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Saksina insisted they were inadequate for protecting rapidly changing ice oceans.
"There is an urgent need for a comprehensive international environmental regime specially tailored for the unique Arctic conditions. This regime is needed before natural resource development expands widely," she said.
Antarctica, meanwhile is facing a different set of challenges, largely linked to a growing parade of tourists and researchers visiting the icy continent.
In 2007, some 40,000 tourists and tour staff visited Antarctica, while in the summer months there are now around 4,000 researchers based at 37 permanent stations and numerous field camps there.
According to the Madrid Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty, signatories must avoid all change and risk to the continent's ecosystem by avoiding the introduction of non-native species and micro-organisms.
Experts at the Akureyri conference however warned that heightened tourism in the area could make it difficult to ensure that no one tracks in alien soil and seeds or introduces "infectious disease-causing agents" through interaction with wildlife or by leaving behind organic waste.
The symposium will wrap up on Tuesday with participants agreeing on a set of recommendations to send to governments, international bodies and other interested parties.
The list of recommendations should be printed and ready to send out within six weeks of the event, conference chairman Leary said.
