PROTECTING THE ANTARCTIC AS A

Ricardo Roura1 and Tina Tin2

Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition

This presentation examines the Antarctic wilderness from the perspective of cultural landscape. At first glance, this may seem an oxymoron, as the term “cultural landscape” is often used to describe places that have been shaped by the joint forces of and humans, and Antarctica is one of the largest remaining wilderness areas of the world. However, cultural landscape is also used to refer to places that provide a sense of place and identity and that map our relationship with the over . Under UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention, “associative cultural landscapes” specifically refer to places that have “powerful religious, artistic or cultural associations” which may have insignificant or no evidence of human intervention. We contend that Antarctica is an associative cultural landscape, one that has powerful cultural associations in the minds of people around the world and that has developed as a result, and by virtue, of the lack of human presence.

In much of the Antarctic region, a continent of 14 million km2 surrounded by the vast Southern Ocean, there is no or little evidence of past or present human activity. The most substantive evidence of human presence is the historic of seals, whales, and some finfish species, some of which have not yet fully recovered. Most significantly the notion of Antarctica as a wilderness is enshrined in the 1991 Protocol of Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty and its explicit commitment to protect Antarctica’s wilderness values. The sustainable management of marine living is now entrusted to the Convention for the Conservation of Marine Living Resources.

Taken together, these international agreements provide a basic protection, explicit or otherwise, to the Antarctic wilderness. The fact that the Antarctic is still comparatively untouched with respect to other parts of the world is partly the result of these agreements, even though their implementation record has not fully met their original objectives and principles. However, basic wilderness protection is weakened by internal and external developmental pressures. Few unvisited places remain, and the human footprint over the Antarctic region is constantly expanding. The Antarctic wilderness is being encroached upon at , from the margins of the continent and – increasingly – from within.

Protecting this unique cultural landscape demands the safeguarding of its pristine wilderness which is its most basic essence. We make this assertion while being fully aware of the pressures that exist to expand human presence over the Antarctic region, and the relatively weak defense against the expansion of the human footprint that is provided by international legislation. The continued existence of the Antarctic wilderness is critical, not only for utilitarian purposes (e.g. science, or the use of living resources), or for services of global importance, but also for the cultural richness of humanity. A diminishment of the Antarctic wilderness represents a diminishment in the opportunities for the human spirit to soar, to dream, to transcend. The challenge is how to ensure that the idea of protecting wilderness, which already exists, is effectively enacted in practice and maintained for the longer term.

1 Dr. R. M. Roura, 40 Joos Banckersplantsoen, 1056 LC Amsterdam, The . Email : [email protected] 2 Dr. T. Tin, 85 Rue du St Michel, 73190 Challes les Eaux, . Email : [email protected]