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Overview of Good Governance
Governing the Frozen Commons: The Antarctic Regime and Environmental Protection (C. Joyner,
“In general, this study explores four analytical perspectives.
First, it seeks to determine which relevant actors are involved in managing the Antarctic commons and the linkages that exist between them.
Second, a serious attempt is made to ascertain what prevailing values are operating in the Antarctic for managing the area, and to explain how the relevant actors have responded in this century to those values.
Third, and critical to explaining the policy process for governing the Antarctic, the analysis investigates the policies adopted by these actors for the Antarctic commons and the means used to determine whether and how policies should be applied to the region.
Fourth, the study strives to point out the futures represented in the values and policies of actors interested in the Antarctic and the means through which they can be planned and carried out.”
Arctic Governance Regime
1991 Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS)
Arctic Monitoring & Assessment Program (AMAP), Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment (PAME), Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response (EPPR) & Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) created in 1991
Arctic Council formed in 1996
Sustainable Development Working Group (SDWG) created in 1998
The Arctic Contaminants Action Program (ACAP) designated a Working Group in 2006
Antarctic Governance Regime
Antarctic Treaty System (ATS)
1959 Antarctic Treaty
1964 Agreed Measures for the Conservation of Antarctic Fauna and Flora
1972 Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals
1980 Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources
1988 Convention on the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resource Activities (CRAMRA) (not in force)
1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (The Madrid Protocol)
2004 Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels.…
This will be a broad overview of good governance, and I’ll briefly address the relevance of the term to the polar regions. A definition for each component of the term “good governance” is easy, so a very general meaning is able to be discerned by the pairing of the two words – that’s why I chose this very simplistic fashion of presenting the words. It’s still ambiguous, however, and as we have seen in the literature and discussed here in class, there is “no single and exhaustive definition of good governance” (htto://www.ohchr.org/english/issues/development/governance). The scope of this term hasn’t been delimited in a fashion that has total acceptance. When used, the meaning of “good governance” is dependent on context in which it’s used and the objective sought in using it, so it’s a very flexible term. While the flexibility has some advantages, it also poses difficulty at the operational level. How do you implement something as vague as “good governance”?
