Antarctica as a global protected area: perceptions and reality |
| |
| Authors: | B W Davis |
| |
| Institution: | Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies , University of Tasmania , GPO Box 252C, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia |
| |
| Abstract: | On 4 October 1991 the Antarctica Treaty nations meeting in Madrid signed a Protocol on Environment Protection, banning mining activity for at least 50 years and designating Antarctica as a ‘natural reserve, devoted to peace and science’. This was a far cry from the earlier CRAMRA proposal of 1988, which involved a draft Convention on the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resource Activities. The path between has been anything but smooth and the paper identifies some of the differing perceptions and processes which affected the outcome. It is argued that geographers may play a useful role in helping devise regimes for management of the global commons, since they are likely to avoid the superficiality and inaccuracy which often attends media and political discourse on such issues. |
| |
| Keywords: | Antarctica Politics Regimes Conservation Environment |
|
|
