International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

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IPY 20 07–20 08
and recognized IPY 2007–2008 as a unique opportunity
to stimulate cooperation and coordination on Arctic
research. It underlined the role of the AC as a highlevel
intergovernmental forum in providing political
support for IPY in the Arctic region. That was notable,
as it was the first expression of support for IPY 2007–
2008 made at high political level.
In the Reykjavik Declaration of October 2004, the
Foreign Ministers also decided that the AC would
support the development of research proposals to
the IPY Joint Committee. That decision was further
elaborated in the accompanying “Report from SAOs
to Ministers at the Fourth AC Ministerial Meeting”
where SAOs recommend to Ministers to “endorse the
development of proposals based on the work of the
AC, as core projects of the IPY.” It also welcomed in that
context an offer from Sweden to host an organizing
session on monitoring and an offer from the United
States to host an organizing session on the Arctic
Human Health study. Subsequently, the proposals for
the “Arctic Human Health Initiative” (AHHI, IPY no. 167)
and for “Coordination of Observation and Monitoring
in Arctic Research” (COMAAR, IPY no. 305) were
endorsed by the IPY JC and became the core projects
of IPY.
The SAO report to the Reykjavik Ministerial Meeting
also recommended to seek AC membership on the
IPY Joint Committee established by ICSU and WMO.
That eventually resulted in the AC, as well as the ATCM
representatives being offered seats as observers on
the JC. The AC representative first attended the JC-2
meeting in November 2005; it instituted the AC formal
presence in IPY implementation throughout 2005–
2010 (Part 5).
Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting
(ATCM)
Manfred Reinke and Johannes Huber
Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings bring together
the Parties to the Antarctic Treaty of 1959.
The meetings are held annually and rotate between
the Consultative Parties in English alphabetical order.
There are at present 48 Parties to the Antarctic Treaty,
28 Consultative and 20 Non-Consultative Parties. The
original Signatories to the Treaty are the 12 countries
that were active in Antarctica during International
Geophysical Year of 1957–1958 and then accepted the
invitation of the U.S. Government to participate in the
diplomatic conference at which the Treaty was negotiated
and adopted. Since 1959, 36 other countries have
acceeded to the Treaty. According to Art. IX.2, they are
entitled to participate in the ATCMs during such times
as they demonstrate their interest in Antarctica by
“conducting substantial research activity there.”
The Antarctic Treaty is forever linked to the
International Polar Years through the words of its
Article II: “Freedom of scientific investigation in Antarctica
and cooperation toward that end, as applied during the
International Geophysical Year, shall continue, subject
to the provisions of the present Treaty.” Consequently,
the preparation for IPY 2007–2008 was an important
matter of discussion at the ATCM annual meetings
since 2003.
The first discussion about the upcoming IPY 2007–
2008 took place at the ATCM XXVI in Madrid on 9–20
June, 2003. At that meeting, SCAR (supported by
Information Paper IP-120) informed the participants
that ICSU had established a planning group for its
“International Polar Year 2007–2008” initiative. The
Russian Federation’s representative referred to a
similar initiative adopted by the XIV WMO Congress
that approved the idea of holding the ‘third IPY
in 2007–2008”, under the auspices of the World
Meteorological Organization (WMO) (ATCM, 2003a;
Chapter 1.2). The proposal for IPY 2007–2008 attracted
significant support from the ATCM. Ten countries and
COMNAP intervened to provide verbal support, and
the U.K. and SCAR provided a draft for the plenary,
which was approved unanimously as Resolution 2
(2003) “Support of the ATCM for the International Polar
Year 2007/08” (Fig. 1.4-8) calling on SCAR and COMNAP
to work with ICSU to pursue actively the planning
and implementation by all interested organizations
of an International Polar Year to address priority polar
science issues of global relevance. The Resolution
called additionally upon the Treaty Parties to make
the support of the IPY a priority within their national
research activities (ATCM, 2003b).
The ATCM XXVII met in Cape Town on 24 May–4
June, 2004 and had extensive discussion on the
preparation for IPY (ATCM, 2004). On behalf of its
parent body ICSU, SCAR presented an Information
Paper (IP-74) outlining the current state of program