ANTARCTIC TREATY REPORT OF THE NORWEGIAN ANTARCTIC INSPECTION UNDER ARTICLE VII OF THE ANTARCTIC TREATY FEBRUARY 2009 Table of Contents Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................................... 1 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 2 1.1 Article VII of the Antarctic Treaty .................................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Past inspections under the Antarctic Treaty ................................................................................................... 2 1.3 The 2009 Norwegian Inspection...................................................................................................................... 3 2. Summary of findings ...................................................................................................................................... 6 2.1 General ............................................................................................................................................................ 6 2.2 Operations....................................................................................................................................................... 7 2.3 Scientific research ........................................................................................................................................... 7 2.4 Environment .................................................................................................................................................... 8 2.5 Military activities ............................................................................................................................................. 8 2.6 Tourism ........................................................................................................................................................... 8 2.7 Permitting ....................................................................................................................................................... 9 2.8 Safety .............................................................................................................................................................. 9 2.9 Concluding remarks ......................................................................................................................................... 9 3. PRINCESS ELISABETH .................................................................................................................................... 10 3.1 About the inspection ..................................................................................................................................... 10 3.2 Description of facility and operations ........................................................................................................... 11 3. 3 Operator ....................................................................................................................................................... 12 3.4 Scientific research ......................................................................................................................................... 13 3.5 Environment .................................................................................................................................................. 14 3.6 Military activity ............................................................................................................................................. 15 3.7 Safety and emergencies ................................................................................................................................ 15 3.8 Tourism ......................................................................................................................................................... 16 3.9 Concluding remarks ....................................................................................................................................... 16 4. HALLEY ......................................................................................................................................................... 17 4.1 General .......................................................................................................................................................... 17 4.2 Description of facility and operations ........................................................................................................... 17 4.3 Operator ........................................................................................................................................................ 20 4.4 Scientific research ......................................................................................................................................... 20 4.5 Environment .................................................................................................................................................. 20 4.6 Military activity ............................................................................................................................................. 22 4.7 Safety and emergencies ................................................................................................................................ 22 4.8 Tourism ......................................................................................................................................................... 23 4.9 Concluding remarks ....................................................................................................................................... 23 5. NOVO RUNWAY AND ALCI AIRBASE ............................................................................................................. 25 5.1 About the inspection ..................................................................................................................................... 25 5.2 Description of facility and operations ........................................................................................................... 25 5.3 Operator ........................................................................................................................................................ 28 5.4 Scientific research ......................................................................................................................................... 29 5.5 Environment .................................................................................................................................................. 29 5.6 Military activity ............................................................................................................................................. 31 5.7 Safety and emergencies ................................................................................................................................ 31 5.8 Tourism ......................................................................................................................................................... 33 5.9 Concluding remarks ....................................................................................................................................... 34 1 1. Introduction 1.1 Article VII of the Antarctic Treaty Article VII of the Antarctic Treaty entitles each Consultative Party to designate observers who shall have the right to carry out unannounced on-spot inspections. The purpose of these inspections is to promote the objectives of and ensure compliance with the provisions of the Antarctic Treaty and the measures adopted under it. The observers shall be accorded complete freedom of access at any time to all areas of Antarctica, including all stations within those areas, as well as vessels and aircrafts at points of embarkation and disembarkation. Article 14 of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty commit the Consultative Parties to undertake inspections under Article VII of the Antarctic Treaty in order to promote the protection of the Antarctic environment and dependent and associated ecosystems, and to ensure compliance with the Environmental Protocol. 1.2 Past inspections under the Antarctic Treaty Inspections have been carried out on a regular basis in Antarctica since the inception of the Treaty. All in all around 40 inspections have been conducted during the first 50 years of the Treaty’s existence. Most inspections have been geographically focused on the Antarctic Peninsula area. In the early days of the Treaty focus of inspections was on nuclear and military matters. Nowadays inspections also include many aspects of environmental protection, as well as operational matters. In recent years, many inspections have been cooperative undertakings carried out by several countries. An overview of inspections at current stations and installations is given in Appendix #1. Inspections have been undertaken by Norway in January 1990, December 1996 and January 2001. The fourth inspection was carried out during the period 19-21 February 2009 and is covered in this report. An overview of the Norwegian inspections is given in Table 1. Table 1: Overview of Norwegian inspections in Antarctica Station 1990 1996 2001 2009 Epica Drillsite/Kohnen Station (Germany) X Georg Forster (Germany) X Georg von