Environmental management on King George Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica

This paper proposes management responses to problems perceived in an earlier paper on King George Island (Polar Record 27(162): 193–204, 1991). Available management instruments and barriers to solutions are reviewed, and new management approaches and tools postulated. The category of Antarctic Protected Area (APA) is proposed for areas needing special protection, with sub-designations of Natural, Scientific and Historic Reserves. Multiple-use Planning Areas (MPAs) are endorsed for areas of high use needing local and regional planning, including station environs, but with sub-designations Environmentally Sensitive Areas, Scientific Research Sites and Facilities Areas. Both APAs and MPAs will require management plans: APAs will be accessible only by entry permit. Also recommended are a scientific and logistic register, scheduled meetings among station commanders, development of an internationally coordinated regional scientific strategy, and an environmental information system. To manage tourism a commercial tourism licence system and tourist levy are recommended, with the industry controlled under management plans developed for APAs and MPAs, plus general Treaty provisions. Workload arising from these revisions would necessitate the Committee on Environmental Protection in the forthcoming Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, with a permanent Treaty secretariat. This framework, requiring a multinational approach to management more sophisticated than has so far been achieved under the Antarctic Treaty, would improve and coordinate management throughout Antarctica.