Polar Geopolitics

Many stakeholders, particularly environmental NGOs, involved with last October's meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources were highly critical of the Commission's failure to reach agreement on additional Marine Protected Areas in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica. Frida Bengtsson is global Project Lead for the Greenpeace 'Protect the Antarctic' campaign, and participated in the meeting in Hobart, Australia on behalf of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition. On this episode of the podcast, she shares her experiences and insights from an NGO perspective on working with, and sometimes against, state and commercial interests in safeguarding both polar regions from excessive exploitation. In addition to the CCAMLR negotiations for MPAs in the Weddell Sea and East Antarctica, Frida also discusses Greenpeace's work with Southern Ocean krill fisheries, the problem of microplastics, and other environmental issues pertaining to the polar regions.