抄録
After 1960s the demand of mineral resources has rapidly increased in industrially advanced countries. Since the countries depend on mineral-abundant developing countries for the most required mineral resources, they have a wide-range mineral policy for securing mineral resources steadily. They, in such straitened circumstances, have special interest in deepsea and Antarctic mineral resources. Although the potential of Antarctic mineral resources has been estimated with a wide uncertainty, it appears that the continent contains significant resources, as many previous investigators have pointed out.
Antarctica is at present governed by the Antarctic Treaty, which went into effect on June 23, 1961. In June 1988, the Consultative Parties of the Antarctic Treaty (CPAT) adopted the Antarctic Mineral Resource Regime governing the exploration, development and production of Antarctic minerals. The Mineral Regime, however, was strongly resisted by international Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) concerned with the conservation of the Antarctic environment. On the other hand, the Non-Aligned Countries declared in the General Assembly of the United Nations that any mineral regime on Antarctica, in order to be of benefit to all mankind, should be negotiated with the full participation of all members of the international community. The Antarctic Mineral Regime, as well as the closed system of the Consultative Meeting by the CPAT, was censured also in many other conferences, e.g. the Conference of Heads of States or Governments of Non-Aligned Countries, the Council of Ministers of the Organisation of African Unity, the Council of Ministers of the League of Arab States, and the Islamic Summit Conference.
Thus, the Antarctic Mineral Regime once adopted was upset in November 1989. The CPAT instead adopted the Protocol on Environmental Protection in October 1991. The protocol, which entered into force on January 14, 1998, prohibites any activity relating to mineral resources, other than scientific research, in Antarctica at least for fifty years. In the period of the protocol negotiation, some international environmental NGOs were invited as observers to the Consultative Meeting and played important roles as reliable partners of the CPAT in the constitution of the protocol.
