Abstract
The future scenarios developed by the contributors to this volume communicate a strong message. They concur that existing environmental management practices and the current system of governance are insufficient to meet the obligations set out under the Madrid Protocol to protect the Antarctic environment, let alone to address the challenges facing a warmer and busier Antarctic in the twenty-first century and beyond. However, not all is doom and gloom. A variety of environmental protection provisions have already been agreed. Reassertion and full compliance to their objectives, as well as wider use of existing environmental management tools (e.g. monitoring, information sharing, systematic designation of protected areas) can significantly increase the protection of the Antarctic environment. Notwithstanding, contentious and strategic issues need to be addressed urgently and proactively. Long-term and large-scale considerations need to permeate throughout all the steps of planning, decision making, implementation, enforcement, monitoring and compliance. Decisions should be guided by long-term visions and goals that are supported by genuine commitment from all actors. Multiple dimensions and perspectives of human engagement with the Antarctic environment (e.g. time, space, individual and collective values, ecosystems) need to be taken into consideration. Effective Antarctic environmental governance can only exist within the context of a stable and supportive governance regime that is invested with genuine political will and necessary resources. This ultimately depends on how much Antarctic Treaty Parties or, in fact, humankind in general, want to protect the Antarctic environment. The future of human engagement with the Antarctic environment draws on basic human values that underlie all decision making. We strongly recommend continued and coordinated studies into the values that different publics and Antarctic Treaty Party members actually associate with Antarctica and into how these values manifest themselves in human behaviour in Antarctica as well as in its governance. Finally, the Antarctic exists within a global context, and its environment cannot be protected through efforts within the Antarctic only. The sustainability of the Antarctic environment also depends on the preservation and broadening of agreed provisions within the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), links between the ATS and other relevant global environmental agreements and global environmental initiatives.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Beck, P. J. (2010). Fifty years on: putting the Antarctic Treaty into the history books. Polar Record, 46(236), 4–7.
Berkman, P. A. (2002). Science into policy: Global lessons from Antarctica. San Diego: Academic Press.
Bertram, E., & Stonehouse, B. (2007). Tourism management for Antarctica. In J. Snyder & B. Stonehouse (Eds.), Prospects for polar tourism (pp. 285–309). Oxon: CABI Publications.
Börjeson, L., Höjer, K., Dreborg, H., Ekvall, T., & Finnveden, G. (2006). Scenario types and techniques: Towards a user’s guide. Futures, 38, 723–739.
Chown, S. L., Lee, J. E., Hughes, K. A., Barnes, J., Barrett, P. J., Bergstrom, D. M., et al. (2012). Challenges to the future conservation of the Antarctic. Science, 337(6091), 158–159.
Davis, P. B. (1999). Beyond guidelines: A model for Antarctic tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 26(3), 516–533.
Dodds, K. (2010). Governing Antarctica: Contemporary challenges and the enduring legacy of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty. Global Policy, 1(1), 108–115.
Elzinga, A. (2011). Origin and limitations of the Antarctic Treaty. In P. A. Berkman, M. A. Lang, D. W. H. Walton, & O. R. Young (Eds.), Science diplomacy: Antarctica, science, and the governance of international spaces (pp. 59–67). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press.
Esbjörn-Hargens, S., & Zimmerman, M. E. (2009). Integral ecology. Uniting multiple perspectives on the natural world. Boston: Integral Books.
French, D., & Scott, K. (2009). International legal implications of climate change for the polar regions: Too much, too little, too late? Melbourne Journal of International Law, 10(2), 631–654.
Glasberg, E. (1998). The last place on Earth: Antarctica and virtual capitalism. PoLAR. Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 21(1), 65–76.
Glasberg, E. (2008). Who goes there? Science, fiction, and belonging in Antarctica. Journal of Historical Geography, 34(4), 639–657.
Hall, C. M., & Wouters, M. (1994). Managing nature tourism in the Sub-Antarctic. Annals of Tourism Research, 21(2), 355–374.
Harris, C. M. (1998). Science and environmental management in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. In Priscu, J. (Ed.), Ecosystem processes in a polar desert: the McMurdo dry valleys, Antarctica (Vol. 72, Antarctic Research Series, pp. 13.). Washington, DC: American Geophysical Union.
Hemmings, A. D. (2008). Beyond claims: Towards a non-territorial Antarctic security prism for Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand Yearbook of International Law, 6, 76–91.
Hooghe, L., & Marks, G. (2003). Unraveling the central state, but how? Types of multi-level governance. American Political Science Review, 97(2), 233–243.
Jacobsson, M. (2011). Building the international legal framework for Antarctica. In P. A. Berkman, M. A. Lang, D. W. H. Walton, & O. R. Young (Eds.), Science diplomacy: Antarctica, science, and the governance of international spaces (pp. 1–15). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press.
Joyner, C. C. (1998). Governing the frozen commons: The Antarctic regime and environmental protection. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
Joyner, C. C. (2008). Challenges to the Antarctic Treaty: Looking back to see ahead. New Zealand Yearbook of International Law, 6, 25–62.
Joyner, C. C. (2011). Potential challenges to the Antarctic Treaty. In P. A. Berkman, M. A. Lang, D. W. H. Walton, & O. R. Young (Eds.), Science diplomacy: Antarctica, science, and the governance of international spaces (pp. 97–102). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press.
Kriwoken, L. K., & Rootes, D. (2000). Tourism on ice: Environmental impact assessment of Antarctic tourism. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 18(2), 138–150.
Lamers, M., Amelung, B., & Stel, J. H. (2010). Business as (Un)usual: Integrated scenario analysis for tourism in Antarctica. In C. M. Hall & J. Saarinen (Eds.), Tourism and change in the polar regions: Climate, environment and experiences. London: Routledge.
Leane, E. (2005). Antarctic travel writing and the problematics of the pristine: Two Australian novelists’ narratives of tourist voyages to Antarctica. In Lester, L. & Ellis, C. (Eds.), Proceedings of Imaging Nature: Media, Environment and Tourism, Cradle Mountain, June 27–29 2004.
Leary, D. (2008). Bi-polar disorder? Is bioprospecting an emerging issue for the arctic as well as for Antarctica? RECIEL, 17(1), 41–55.
Leary, D. (2009). Looking beyond the international polar year: What are the emerging and re-emerging issues in international law and policy in the polar regions? Yearbook of Polar Law, 1, 1–19.
Liggett, D. H. (2011). Economy world and its peoples (Vol. 10 (Australia and Antarctica), pp. 1430–1433). New York: Marshall Cavendish.
Maher, P. T. (2007). Advocating for Antarctic wilderness: Short-term visits and human values. In Watson, A., Sproull, J. & Dean, L. (eds.) Science and stewardship to protect and sustain wilderness values: Eighth World Wilderness Congress symposium. Proceedings RMRS-P-49. Fort Collins, USA: US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, RMRS.
Maher, P. T. (2010). Footsteps on the ice: Visitor experiences in the Ross Sea region. Antarctica: Lincoln University.
McFague, S. (1993). The body of God: An ecological theology. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress.
Newig, J., & Fritsch, O. (2009). Environmental governance: Participatory, multi-level—and effective? Environmental Policy and Governance, 19 197–214.
Orheim, O., Press, A., & Gilbert, N. (2011). Managing the Antarctic environment: The evolving role of the committee for environmental protection. In P. A. Berkman, M. A. Lang, D. W. H. Walton, & O. R. Young (Eds.), Science diplomacy: Antarctica, science, and the governance of international spaces (pp. 209–221). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press.
Ostrom, E. (2005). Understanding institutional diversity. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Rescher, N. (1966). Practical reasoning and values. The Philosophical Quarterly, 16(63), 121–136.
Rokeach, M. (1973). The nature of human values. New York: Free Press.
Rønnow-Rasmussen, T., & Zimmerman, M. J. (Eds.). (2005). Recent work on intrinsic value. Dordrecht: Springer.
Roots, E. F. (2011). Background and evolution of some ideas and values that have led to the Antarctic Treaty. In P. A. Berkman, M. A. Lang, D. W. H. Walton, & O. R. Young (Eds.), Science diplomacy: Antarctica, science, and the governance of international spaces (pp. 69–72). Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press.
Rothwell, D. R., & Nasu, H. (2008). Antarctica and international security discourse: A primer. New Zealand Yearbook of International Law, 6, 3–23.
Sandler, R. (2012). Intrinsic value, ecology, and conservation. Nature Education Knowledge, 3(3), 4.
Schwartz, S. H. (2005). Basic human values: An overview. 1–20. Retrieved 10 March 2012 from http://segr-did2.fmag.unict.it/Allegati/convegno7-8-10-05/Schwartzpaper.pdf
Scott, K. N. (2010). Managing sovereignty and jurisdictional disputes in the Antarctic: The next fifty years. Yearbook of International Environmental Law, 20(1), 3–40.
Spufford, F. (2007). Introduction. In Spufford, F. & Kolbert, E. (Eds.). The Ends of the Earth: The Antarctic, vol.2 of The Ends of the Earth. An Anthology of the finest Writing on the Arctic and the Antarctic. (pp. 1–11). New York: Bloomsbury.
Stokke, O. S., & Vidas, D. (Eds.). (1996). Governing the Antarctic. The effectiveness and legitimacy of the Antarctic Treaty System. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge.
Terauds, A., Chown, S. L., Morgan, F., Peat, H. J., Watts, D. J., Keys, H., et al. (2012). Conservation biogeography of the Antarctic. Diversity and Distributions, 18(7), 726–741.
Tracey, P. J. (2001). Managing Antarctic tourism. PhD thesis, the University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
Triggs, G. (2011). The Antarctic Treaty System: A model of legal creativity and cooperation. In P. A. Berkman, M. A. Lang, D. W. H. Walton, & O. R. Young (Eds.), Science diplomacy: Antarctica, science, and the governance of international spaces (pp. 39–49). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press.
Van’t Klooster, S. A., & Van Asselt, M. B. A. (2006). Practising the scenario-axes technique. Futures, 38, 15–30.
Weber, M. (2011). The strength to continue: A case study approach to examining the robustness of polar governance in the era of environmental and energy security. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia.
Young, O. R. (1998). The effectiveness of international environmental regimes: A mid-term report. International Environmental Affairs, 10(4), 267–289.
Young, O. R. (2011). Governing international spaces: Antarctica and beyond. In P. A. Berkman, M. A. Lang, D. W. H. Walton, & O. R. Young (Eds.), Science diplomacy: Antarctica, science, and the governance of international spaces (pp. 287–294). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.
Young, O. R., & Osherenko, G. (Eds.) (1993). Polar politics: Creating international environmental regimes. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
Zimmerman, M. J. (2001). The nature of intrinsic value. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Liggett, D., Lamers, M., Tin, T., Maher, P.T. (2014). Conclusion: Multiple Dimensions of Human Engagement with the Antarctic Environment. In: Tin, T., Liggett, D., Maher, P., Lamers, M. (eds) Antarctic Futures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6582-5_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6582-5_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-6581-8
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-6582-5
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)