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Historical Developments, Drivers of Change and Future Scenarios for Human Activities on Deception Island

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Antarctic Futures

Abstract

Deception Island is an active volcano with a flooded caldera and numerous glaciers, providing a unique habitat to very rare biological assemblies. Deception Island has a long history of human activity and is currently one of the most visited locations in the Antarctic. Natural, scientific and tourism values coexist in a small area. Some activities may interfere with others and can potentially compromise the future conservation of the island and its unique values. Under the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), regulatory mechanisms have been developed to provide different levels of protection to the island in order to minimise the inevitable environmental impacts and cumulative effects arising from existing human activities. Six Treaty parties manage Deception Island collectively as Antarctic Specially Managed Area (ASMA) No. 4 which has been identified as an exemplar of strategic environmental management. However, under the ATS the success of policies is highly dependent on the level of stakeholder acceptance. In this chapter, through a review of the environmental impacts, regulatory mechanisms, current trends and drivers for change we examine a range of possible management scenarios that combine different levels of environmental standards with varying likelihoods of stakeholder acceptance. Success of any of these policies will rely on information provided by monitoring programmes.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) publishes statistics on tourist visits to Antarctica under its member companies. IAATO has over 100 member companies that cover around 97 % of the Antarctic tourism market. According to IAATO’s statistics, a tourist landing is counted when a paying passenger gets off a ship and makes a visit at a land location. One passenger usually makes only one landing at each location but can make landings at several locations.

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Acknowledgments

This paper was contributed by the project: EVA-ANTARCTICA. It was supported by the Spanish Government (CTM2009-06604-E). We would like to thank the Spanish Polar Committee, the SM BIO Las Palmas of the Spanish Navy, the Unit of Marine Technology (UMT) from CSIC, the Spanish station Gabriel de Castilla and the military members that provided data and support on the field, specially to Commander Francisco Lupiani (outpost 2011) and Commander Antonio Casals (outpost 2012). Also thanks to the military members of the Argentinean Deception Base, especially to Commander Cristian Carrizo (outpost 2012). Thanks also to Peter Fretwell from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) for the Deception map. We would like to thank the Drs. Birgit Njaastad and Veronica Vallejos who contributed to largely improve the document. And thanks especially to Drs. Kevin A Hughes and Tina Tin, from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and Antarctic & Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) respectively, for their advice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ecología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, C/Darwin 2, 28049, Madrid, Spain

    Luis R. Pertierra, Pablo Tejedo & Javier Benayas

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  1. Luis R. Pertierra
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  2. Pablo Tejedo
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  3. Javier Benayas
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Correspondence to Luis R. Pertierra .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Challes-les-Eaux, Savoie, France

    Tina Tin

  2. Gateway Antarctica University of Canterbury, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand

    Daniela Liggett

  3. University of Northern British Columbia Outdoor Recreation & Tourism Management, Prince George, British Columbia, Canada

    Patrick T Maher

  4. Environmental Policy Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Machiel Lamers

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Pertierra, L.R., Tejedo, P., Benayas, J. (2014). Historical Developments, Drivers of Change and Future Scenarios for Human Activities on Deception Island. In: Tin, T., Liggett, D., Maher, P., Lamers, M. (eds) Antarctic Futures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6582-5_8

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