Tuesday, August 4th 2009 - 12:45 UTC

Strengthening international cooperation is the main challenge of Antarctic meeting

With the challenge of strengthening international cooperation for development of Antarctic science, the XXI Annual Meeting of the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs (COMNAP) started yesterday. COMNAP is one of the most important forums of the Antarctic Treaty System.

XXI COMNAP Annual Meeting Zoom Image

The COMNAP Executive Secretary, Michelle Rogan-Finnemore, said this meeting will allow Antarctic Programs to discuss new mechanisms for collaboration and best practices, to optimize financial, logistic and scientific resources of the community in Antarctica.

Some discussions will take place on how countries can share things like ships and airplanes and will also be working on a way to buy needed fuel for vessels and bases in one bulk purchase agreement.

Also, the COMNAP Executive Secretary explained an important topic in this event will be the dialogue about future directions in Antarctic science.

Antarctica represents an opportunity to understanding global problems like global climate change, global biodiversity and ecosystems and repair of the ozone hole.

“We expect to share new ways to work in the spirit of the Antarctic Treaty System (1959), which designates Antarctica as a natural reserve devoted to peace and science”, said Michelle Rogan-Finnemore.

The meeting, which is hosted by the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH), a technical organization linked to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile, registered over 120 delegates that work over 3 days of plenary meeting at Convention Center of Dreams Hotel. Multilateral and bilateral discussions will also take place on Thursday.

26 delegations from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Ecuador, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Korea, Spain, Sweden, Uruguay, United Kingdom and the United States of America will attend.

COMNAP, created in 1988, it is the international association that brings together National Antarctic Programs from around the world to develop and promote best practice in managing the support of scientific research in Antarctica. The current president of COMNAP is PhD José Retamales Espinoza, from Chile, who is National Director of INACH.