COMNAP, the Antarctic organisation based in New Zealand you've probably never heard of

Sunday, 8 January 2023

You've heard of Scott Base, but what about the other stations in Antarctica? (Video first published January 2023)

It’s one of our nearest neighbours and it’s larger than the United States, but how much do you really know about Antarctica? Reporter Lee Kenny looks at the countries that operate on the frozen continent, their weird and wonderful bases and exactly what they do there.

It's possible you've never heard of COMNAP – the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs – and yet it plays a major role in life on the ice.

It’s also headquartered in Christchurch and said to be a “jewel in the crown” of the city’s Antarctic Gateway status.

Thousands of people from across the globe visit Antarctica each year, and although countries operate independently – most in accordance with the 1959 Antarctic Treaty – it’s a place of great international cooperation.

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This is in no small part thanks to COMNAP.

The need for an organisation to support and enhance collaboration in the Antarctic was identified in the mid-1980s.

With “growing interest in Antarctica”, COMNAP was formed in 1988, to “ensure effective and collaborative operations, logistics and science support”, among 22 national programmes.

Today, it has 32 members – including Antarctica New Zealand – and is open to countries engaged in Antarctic research, provided they are also signatories to the Antarctic Treaty and the Environmental Protocol.

“We are a council, that means that everyone sits around the table, has an equal voice and an equal vote,” said Michelle Rogan-Finnemore, COMNAP's executive secretary and director of the secretariat.

New Zealand won hosting rights for the COMNAP Secretariat during an international bidding process in 2008.

The organisation now lives within Gateway Antarctica at University of Canterbury (UC), having previously been based in the United States and then Australia.

Christchurch is one of five Antarctic Gateway Cities – as well as Hobart, Ushuaia, Punta Arenas and Cape Town – and also based in the Garden City is Antarctica New Zealand, whose chief executive Sarah Williamson sits on the COMNAP council.

Rogan-Finnemore spent a winter at the National Science Foundation's Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.

Every year, the original 12 “Parties to the Treaty” and other eligible countries meet to make recommendations for ongoing activity in Antarctica.

The next meeting will be held in Helsinki, Finland, in May. COMNAP is one of three permanent observer organisations that can submit advice at the annual meetings.

“This is pretty important, and it allows us to put forward […] practical, technical and, really importantly, non-political advice,” said Rogan-Finnemore.

In addition to the 32 National Antarctic Programme Members, COMNAP includes five observer programmes: Colombia, Malaysia, Portugal, Switzerland and Venezuela.

“It's to help them to learn as they grow their programme into a full national Antarctic programme.”

COMNAP also runs a number of projects, such as its Covid-19 outbreak management response.

It recently launched an earthquake, tsunami and volcanic event awareness plan, as “currently in the Peninsula we are seeing a very high level of seismic activity”, says Rogan-Finnemore.

“Let's imagine you're someone from a country that never gets an earthquake, and then you travel to Antarctica, and you're involved in an earthquake, what do you need to do to protect yourself and your team?”

As well as heading COMNAP, US-born, Christchurch-based Rogan-Finnemore is a geologist and lawyer who helped start the Gateway Antarctica programme at UC.

She has spent two winters in Antarctica – including one at the South Pole where she took geodesy and seismology observations for the US Geological Survey – and has an Antarctic mountain named after her – the 2050m Finnemore Peak.

The strength of the national Antarctic programmes, she said, is that they “have the greatest firsthand experience of the Antarctic”.

“They have been sending people there since the 1960s, so they know Antarctica.”

Many of the people who sit around the table and make the laws and rules for the Antarctic haven’t actually been there, she said.

“They might be good policymakers in their own right, but COMNAP feels like we’re providing a reality check.”