MADRID - Tourism in Antarctica may be curbed under measures being considered by the countries which control activities in the world's last great wilderness.
"We just can't leave it to industry to regulate, we have to deal with it ourselves," Australia's delegation head Tony Press said, summarising a two-week meeting of
Antarctic Treaty nations which ended on Friday.
The tour operators who ferry thousands of people to wonder at the Antarctic's harsh but dramatic landscapes and its unique wildlife formed their own self-regulatory body in 1991, the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO).
But the number of visitors to the frozen continent is rising rapidly, with around 22,000 expected to enjoy the sights of penguins, seals, icebergs and glaciers next year compared with annual figures of around 5000 in the early 1990s, according to Trevor Hughes, of New Zealand's Antarctic policy unit.
New Zealand is at the forefront of moves to limit tourism and Hughes said that while Antarctic Treaty nations agreed IAATO and its members had so far done a good job in promoting high standards, more stringent regulation was needed.
"New and bigger operators are coming in. Thousand-passenger vessels which are not members of IAATO, full of heavy bunker oil," Hughes told Reuters at the closing session. "Tourism is now becoming the major human activity in Antarctica and the treaty parties need to take responsibility for its more active and effective management and regulation."
One of the points agreed in Madrid by the parties to the 44-year-old Antarctic Treaty was for Norway to host a meeting of experts early next year to examine the impact of tourism on the largely pristine Antarctic environment.
The New Zealanders also raised the dangers of so-called "adventure tourism" where people embark on ambitious and often highly dangerous expeditions in Antarctica.
"We have to send people out to risk their lives to rescue people...You can't categorically say you have to ban this or that, but everything has to be looked at individually," Hughes said.
Another area of debate was environmental liability and who should be responsible in the event of an ecological disaster in the region, such as a major oil spill.
- REUTERS
Herald Feature: Conservation and Environment
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