The small ice-free areas of Antarctica are essential locations for both biodiversity and scientific research but are subject to considerable and expanding human impacts, resulting primarily from station-based research and support activities, and local tourism. Awareness by operators of the need to conserve natural values in and around station and visitor site footprints exists, but the cumulative nature of impacts often results in reactive rather than proactive management. With human activity spread across many isolated pockets of ice-free ground, the pathway to the greatest reduction of human impacts within this natural reserve is through better management of these areas, which are impacted the most.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFManaging fisheries to meet social, economic and ecological objectives is a fundamental problem encountered in fisheries management worldwide. In Australia, fisheries management involves a complex set of national and sub-national policy arrangements, including those designed to deliver against ecologically sustainable development (ESD) objectives. The complex policy framework makes ensuring policy coherence and avoiding unintended consequences difficult, particularly where potential trade-offs are not made explicit.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResearch stations in Antarctica are concentrated on scarce ice-free habitats. Operating these stations in the harsh Antarctic climate provides many challenges, including the need to handle bulk fuel and cargo increasing the risk of environmental incidents. We examined 195 reports of environmental incidents from the Australian Antarctic Program, spanning six years, to investigate the impacts and pathways of contemporary environmental incidents.
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