Tuesday 04, October de 2016
Información para la Prensa N°: 326/16

The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Carlos Foradori, headed a ceremony at the Palacio San Martin today to mark the 25th anniversary of the execution of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty. The ceremony was attended by representatives of the signatory States to the Antarctic Treaty, members of the Committee for Environmental Protection, the Executive Secretary of the Antarctic Treaty, authorities and officials that are part of the Argentine Antarctic Programme, as well as employees of Correo Argentino, the state-owned company of postal services of Argentina.

During the ceremony, the Argentine Foreign Ministry and Correo Argentino launched two postage stamps to mark the event, with illustrations of the two protected Antarctic areas where Argentine stations Deception and Spring are located.

Antarctic nations have agreed on this instrument in order to establish a legal framework to guarantee the protection of the Antarctic environment and its dependent and related ecosystems. The Madrid Protocol designates Antarctica as a "natural reserve, devoted to peace and science," banning any exploitation activities of mineral resources that are not conducted for scientific research purposes. The Protocol also includes five annexes in force that deal with specific questions for the regulation of human activities in Antarctica.

On 4 October 1991 in Madrid, the Argentine Republic, together with other 27 signatory States, signed the Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty on Environmental Protection, which it subsequently ratified in 1993. Argentina actively implements the mechanisms and proceedings assumed under the Protocol, together with the other 36 countries that are now parties to it.