Standing on the deck of an expedition cruise ship as you arrive at the Antarctic Peninsula, don\u2019t look for any flag flying high over the territory. It doesn’t have one. Research bases fly the flags of their nations and when visitors arrive on expedition cruise ships they proudly wave banners to celebrate landing on the Seventh Continent. But Antarctica is not a country. Despite being a continent the size of Australia, no-one actually lives here. You don’t even have to show your passport except in any country you\u2019re transiting through to get there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Antarctica simultaneously belongs to no country and the entire world. In a world of competing nations and increasingly isolationist policies, it feels like an anomaly. But if no one owns Antarctica, how is it protected? And how are activities – from science to tourism – regulated there? For that, we can thank the Antarctic Treaty, signed over 60 years ago during an equally challenging period of international politics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A history of the Antarctic Treaty<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In the first half of the 20th century, there was an international scramble for Antarctica. There had been a nationalistic race for the South Pole, followed by a series of expeditions that never made the headlines but dutifully started to fill out the blank spaces on the map. By the start of the Second World War, several nations had gone as far as making formal territorial claims. Antarctica was divided up like slices of cake, and several countries even demanded the same piece. The Antarctic Peninsula was claimed by Great Britain, Argentina and Chile.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAntarctica in 1957 during the International Geophysical Year (Image: William McTigue\/NOAA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Yet in the late 1950s at the height of the Cold War, science offered a different way forward \u2013 through the International Geophysical Year, a comprehensive study of the Earth, its poles and atmosphere. Antarctica could almost have been the Moon for all that was known about it, and getting scientists from competing nations to collaborate for the global good was an astonishing achievement. Diplomats agreed that during the year (which actually ran for 18 months from the middle of 1957 to the end of 1958 to account for the short polar seasons), all territorial claims to Antarctica would be put aside.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The Antarctic Treaty recognised the value of the continent as a neutral space at a time of international tension.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The great success of the International Geophysical Year led to the negotiation of the Antarctic Treaty, which recognised the value of the continent as a neutral space at a time of international tension. Twelve countries\u2014Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States\u2014came together to draft a landmark agreement. The Antarctic Treaty was signed on December 1 1959 (a date still celebrated as Antarctic Day), and came into force in June 1961. All territorial claims to the continent were permanently suspended, and Antarctica \u2013\u2014defined as all points south of 60\u00b0 latitude\u2014was set aside as a place for scientific cooperation, and the entire continent was demilitarised. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Environmental protection<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Antarctic Treaty was an extraordinary achievement, and in the years since a further 54 countries have also committed to protect it, with a comprehensive system known as the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) in place to enforce its rules. But it took another 30 years for one of its most important provisions. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Ross Sea in 1991 (Image: Michael Van Woert\/NOAA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Today, the need to protect Antarctica\u2019s near-pristine environment is well understood, but the attitudes during the framing of the treaty in the late 1950s were rather different. Industrial whaling in Antarctic waters was approaching its peak, and as incredible as it sounds now, the US government built a nuclear reactor at its McMurdo research base (nicknamed \u2018Nukey Poo\u2019) in the same year the Antarctic Treaty was signed. The global importance of Antarctica to the planet\u2014and need for international cooperation on environmental matters\u2014 only entered public consciousness with the discovery of the hole in the Ozone Layer in 1985 by scientists at the British Antarctic Survey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1991, on the 30th anniversary of the Treaty, signatories came together to adopt the Protocol on Environmental Protection, to put the preservation of Antarctica\u2019s environment at the forefront of all activities on the continent. This banned the prospecting for oil or minerals in Antarctica to prevent competition for polluting resources, and put strict operational guidelines on all activities in Antarctica, from waste disposal to managing threats from invasive species. The American nuclear reactor had already been safely removed, but the protocol also meant the removal of the last sledge dogs from research bases \u2013 a constant presence since the days of the earliest explorers, but a potential risk to the fragile environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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