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Provision of Scientific Advice

When the Antarctic Treaty came into force in 1961, SCAR accepted the task of being the primary source of objective, independent scientific advice to the Antarctic Treaty Parties through the biennial Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM), and was granted the status of Observer to the ATCM. Subsequently, some of the tasks formerly addressed by SCAR were taken up by organisations of the Antarctic Treaty System. For instance, in 1982, under the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties created a commission and a scientific committee to oversee the development of an ecosystem-wide approach to management of the waters south of the Antarctic Convergence. In 1991, the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty was concluded to apply environmental protection principles to human activities in Antarctica. The Protocol required the formation of a Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP) to advise the ATCM on the implementation of the Protocol.

SCAR recognises through its mission and objectives the importance of the provision of relevant information, assessments and advice to the ATCM so as to help policy makers meet international commitments in the Antarctic.

SCAR’s specific mission is:

To be the leading independent organisation for facilitating and coordinating Antarctic research, and for identifying issues emerging from greater scientific understanding of the region that should be brought to the attention of policy makers”.

Among its objectives it aims:

To provide objective and independent scientific advice to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings and other organizations on issues of science and conservation affecting the management of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.

The way in which SCAR proposes to operate to meet this objective is set out in section 4 of SCAR’s Strategic Plan 2004-2010, reproduced below.

“ Part of SCAR’s mission is to identify issues emerging from greater scientific understanding of the region that should be brought to the attention of policy makers, and one of SCAR’s main objectives is to provide objective and independent scientific advice to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings and other organizations on issues of science and conservation affecting the management of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. To meet these goals, SCAR will take the following strategic approach:

  1. provide scientific advice to governments;
  2. promote productive linkages between scientists and decision-makers; and
  3. ensure that science contributes to relevant international legal instruments..

In taking these approaches, SCAR responds to requests from the Treaty for information, and initiates new activities relevant to environmental management of the continent and its surrounding seas and oceans. This close linkage to an international Treaty is unique among ICSU bodies.

Much of the advice relates to the management and conservation of Antarctic terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems, and comes primarily from the activities of the Life Sciences SSG – especially those focused on biodiversity, habitat and ecosystem research. The Expert Groups on Birds and on Seals provide important data on population trends and habitat usage needed for conservation policy. These two Groups provide essential information to the Scientific Committee of CCAMLR and, if the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Seals were to meet, the SCAR Expert Group on Seals would be the primary focus for organising scientific input to it. Using the existing Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) mechanisms SCAR is able to propose Antarctic Specially Protected Areas and Specially Protected Species to the Committee on Environmental Protection (CEP), although, to date, SCAR has not exercised this potential. During the 1980s, SCAR and IUCN held three joint meetings on conservation in the Antarctic and Subantarctic islands. Based on these and other meetings, and on advice from the SCAR Sub-Committee on Conservation, IUCN published “A strategy for Antarctic Conservation” in 1991. Recognising that this is now out of date, an Action Group on Best Practices in Conservation has been established to develop a new version of this for the 21st century.

Although SCAR only appoints an Observer to the Scientific Committee of CCAMLR, many SCAR scientists are directly involved in providing data to this Committee through their national delegations. SCAR National Committees are active in the promotion, scientific review and development of protected and managed areas in Antarctica. That work needs to be highlighted, and the activities that relate to this work need to be specifically reported on, in SCAR National reports.

An example of SCAR’s proactive approach is given by SCAR’s leadership in addressing the problems associated with studying Lake Vostok, the largest lake under the Antarctic ice sheet. If properly sampled in a way that prevents contamination, Lake Vostok may provide a unique way to see historical changes in global processes, discover new organisms, and result in other insights that only a pristine, isolated environment might provide. SCAR will be proactive in bringing this kind of issue to the attention of the ATCM. New strategic issues for consideration in the future may include bioprospecting (see SCAR Recommendation XXVIII-12), and the introduction into the Antarctic of alien species, mostly in ballast water (see SCAR Recommendation XXVIII-11).

SCAR already has made a significant contribution to the orderly development of a spatial information system, in producing a composite names gazetteer to minimise the impact of duplicate, confusing and positionally incorrect names, and in recommending that Members check with this register before creating new names for already named features. In principle SCAR considers it desirable to aim for one name per feature, for both new and historical names (See SCAR Recommendation XXVIII-1). GPS technology now enables us to provide exact positions for all named features, The problem of multiple naming of features is an issue that SCAR will bring to the attention of ATCM and COMNAP.

The SCAR President takes the primary responsibility on the Executive Committee for ATCM matters. To deal with SCAR’s interactions with the ATS in detail, SCAR Delegates appoint a five-person committee – the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) Standing Committee. The Chair of this Committee attends the ATCM, presents SCAR inputs as Working or Information Papers, and responds to requests from Parties and the CEP for scientific information and guidance. Papers submitted may be joint with other organisations such as COMNAP or the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Papers are prepared in consultation with the Standing Scientific Groups, and circulated to the Executive Committee, National Committees and Delegates for comment before being submitted by the Secretariat. They may be based entirely on a synthesis of existing literature, or a special workshop may be called to help synthesize what is known.

In the inter-sessional periods, the ATS Committee monitors the work of relevant Inter-sessional Contact Groups and provides science input to their deliberations where appropriate. The Committee is funded to organise small workshop meetings if needed to progress especially difficult tasks. The Chair of the ATS Committee provides a report to the Executive and Delegates and briefs the SSGs on developments. It is recognised that the resources available for the provision of advice to the ATCM are finite and limited.

As part of its proactive approach, since 2003, SCAR has provided a plenary lecture on a relevant science topic to each ATCM as a means of informing the treaty parties about the exciting scientific topics of the day in the Antarctic contect. The lectures are intended to combine the interests of SCAR and COMNAP, to be prepared in consultation with the appropriate SSGs to ensure that the position of the SCAR community is reflected, and to be placed on the SCAR web site. If possible SCAR should arrange for the SCAR lecture to be given annually as part of the SCAR presentation to the Plenary session of the ATCM.”

SCAR provides scientific advice to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM). SCAR also provides scientific advice to the Committee on Environmental Protection (CEP) of the ATCM, to the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Living Marine Resources (CCAMLR), and to the Advisory Committee for the Agreement on Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP), which has been developed under the auspices of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS).