A/RES/48/80 Page 4 6. Urges the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties to build on the agreements achieved at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, particularly as noted in paragraph 5 above, and, in this connection, actively to consider the possibility of organizing an annual seminar/symposium covering issues relating to the environment, commencing in 1994, with international participation as wide as possible, including that of international organizations such as the United Nations; 7. Also urges the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties to establish monitoring and implementation mechanisms to ensure compliance with the provisions of the 1991 Madrid Protocol on Environmental Protection; 8. Reiterates its call, in welcoming the ban on prospecting and mining in and around Antarctica for the next fifty years by Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties in accordance with the Madrid Protocol, for the ban to be made permanent; 9. Also reiterates its call that any move at drawing up an international convention to establish a nature reserve or world park in Antarctica and its dependent and associated ecosystems must be negotiated with the full participation of the international community; 10. Reaffirms, while welcoming the concrete steps taken by the Secretariat through the publication on Antarctica by the Department of Public Information, the need to promote further public awareness of the importance of Antarctica to the ecosystem, and in this regard requests the Secretary-General to continue to provide relevant materials on Antarctica through the Department of Public Information within existing resources; 11. Encourages the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties to increase the level of cooperation and collaboration with a view to reducing the number of scientific stations in Antarctica and to handle tourism effectively through transparent environmental impact assessment studies; 12. Urges the international community to ensure that all activities in Antarctica are carried out exclusively for the purpose of peaceful scientific investigation and that all such activities will ensure the maintenance of international peace and security and the protection of the Antarctic environment and are for the benefit of all mankind; 13. Urges all States Members of the United Nations to cooperate with the Secretary-General on matters pertaining to Antarctica; 14. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its forty-ninth session the item entitled "Question of Antarctica". 81st plenary meeting 16 December 1993