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Some unique subjects like Lake Baikal and Siberia, the Geat Lakes in Africa, and North America, are part of our global patrimony. They are some of the absolute values our planet possesses arid their significance transcends any national boundaries. We should learn how to foresee their future and how to anticipate the after-effects of large-scale engineering projects.
Since people's interests vary. it cannot be taken for granted that people will accept scholars' recommendations and come to agreement on that score. And their agreement is of special importance in situations where global problems are involved and where the human race as a whole may be threatened with perils generated by the absence of such agreement.
What is needed today is the moulding of a new ethos and new arrangements for building an understanding among people, countries, and regions. And as a first step we should produce new knowledge, concentrate our research efforts on maintaining life on earth, and develop a system distributing and disseminating knowledge and new moral criteria in a way that makes it available to billions of people who inhabit our planet.
Academician N.N. Moiseev
USSR Academy of Sciences
WCED Public Hearing
Moscow, 8 Dec 1986
Antarctica may require the establishment of somewhat more formal institutions than have governed the first generation of activities. in order to foster better communication and coordination both within and outside the Treaty System.
105. Antarctica is on the agenda of the UN General Assembly and will probably remain so Nothing will happen, however, unless the participants in the debate find terms of reference that can command broad-based support and an agreed-upon means to explore and give effect to improved management.
106. To focus on longer-term strategies to preserve and build on the achievements of the existing Treaty System, nations must create the means to foster dialogue among politicians, scientists, environmentalists. and industries from countries within ad outside it. A good place to start would be the development of closer working relationships between the parties to Antarctic regimes and the international organizations within and outside the UN system that have responsibilities for science and technology, conservation, and environmental management.
107. National policy processes could also be structured to provide for dialogue with concerned industries, public interest
organizations, and expert advisors, perhaps through an Antarctic advisory committee. The U.S. Government has been in the forefront of those countries appointing industry and public interest advisors to its delegations to Consultative Parties meetings. Australia, New Zealand, and Denmark have more recently followed suit.
