Antarctica
A fragile environment?
LO:
• To know the impacts and threats of Tourism in
Antarctica
• To be able to evaluate management methods of
tourism in Antarctica
Prep – due Friday
Leaflet / target
List as many impacts of
tourism in Antarctic as you
can think of (2 mins)
What are the impacts on Antarctica?
Can it cope?
1. Tour ships get bigger and increase the risk of accidents. In the past 2 years, 6
vessels have gone aground.
2. Oil spills from crashes such as the supply ship Bahai Paraiso.
3. Disturbed wildlife (penguins),
4. Litter,
5. Slow growing moss beds
6. Stolen historic items or geological souvenirs.
7. The presences of tourists can disrupt research activity and put demands on
staff who are not responsible for tourists.
8. The increase of tourism in the Antarctic creates the need for more planes
and boats to reach the land. These planes and boats in turn create
environmental risks, mainly pollution.
9. With more tourists visiting Antarctica the reputation of the continent as
being pristine and exotic wilderness reduces.
How can we manage tourism in
Antarctica?
a) Get in groups – number 1’s / 2’s / 3’s / 4’s / 5’s
b) Within your group you will all represent the same group of
people – discuss together and come up with 2 rules that you
might enforce to protect Antarctica
c) When instructed ! Then move to your allocated Letter Group
as on your hand out and you will then discuss and take it in
turns to share your rules for protecting Antarctica from the
different groups of people
d) At the end you should have a list of 10 rules that will reduce
the impacts of tourism.
IAATO team
Role
Role
1. Conservation Scientist
2. Lawyer & financial advisor
-
- Deals with laws between countries and
how much things cost
- The 1961 treaty is for 46 countries so is
very complicated.
-
Wants to preserve Antarctica as the world’s
last wilderness and study wild animals and
ecosystems.
Worried about how fragile the area is and
how fast it is changing with climate change.
3. Tour operator to Antarctica
-Concerned with maintaining and growing the
tourist numbers from 50,000.
-Wants people to come along to experience
this extreme environment.
5. Archaeologist
- Wants to preserve the exploration history of
Captain Scott and the early explorers.
4. Air force/Navy officer from Antarctic
country
-Doesn’t want to risk men and ships saving
unprepared tours in dangerous weather and
seas without compensation.
Is Antarctica coping well with the impact of tourists?
What they have done?
Grade
My opinion of how good this
is?
Tell the national governments
that a trip is going ahead.
Take all human waste and
rubbish back
Captains of ships need to train
for a month in how to cope
with southern ocean seas
Cannot visit SSSIs – special
sites of scientific interest – eg
Bird Island, South Georgia
You cannot go to Antarctica
without a permit (you prove
you will not impact)
Ships limited to 500
passengers
Any trips to Scott’s hut, have
to have a government person
to make sure they treat it well
But tourist numbers are getting bigger (______ in 2009).
What improvements would you make?
Points for Discussion
• Why do we need to manage tourism? (use egs from other
parts of the world)
• Do you agree with their current policies in Antarctica? (in your
role as a member of the IAATO team)
• What have you learnt today about dealing with conflict in a
group?
• What is going to happen to Antarctica in the future?
Exam Question – Prep – Due next
th
Thursday 25
Using an extreme tourism location
(ANTARCTICA) describe the extent to which it
can cope with the impacts of tourism
(8 marks)
- Discuss impacts and strategies
- 3 well developed points / explained = 8 marks