Report on attendance at the Fourth Meeting of the Committee for Environmental Protection Under the Madrid Protocol

This report outlines the participation of the SC-CAMLR Chair in the Fourth Meeting of the Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP-IV) under the Madrid Protocol. The most important issues of relevance to SC-CAMLR are: (1) A report of an open-ended intersessional contact group of the CEP reported on progress to find appropriate criteria for and a mechanism to ensure consistency in, the designation of Antarctic Specially Protected Species. The contact group will continue under a specified Terms of Reference; (2) A report from an intersessional contact group on Diseases of Antarctic Wildlife provided a document that would be useful for Parties when developing or improving national procedures to avoid introduction of diseases in the Antarctic. It noted that the risk that human activities in Antarctica might introduce diseases was currently assessed to be very low; (3) The CCAMLR SC Chair presented a paper prepared by the Secretariat presenting CCAMLR’s experience with data management; (4) The CCAMLR SC Chair also presented a paper prepared by the Secretariat on monitoring marine debris; (5) Australia, the CEP Observer to CCAMLR XIX and SC-CAMLR XIX, presented a report on CCAMLR activities at its 2000 meetings; and (6) The CEP agreed to consider more extensively CEP/CCAMLR cooperation at CEP-V.