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Advice from research: market visiting rights to Antarctica
September 29, 2008Tourism on Antarctica is increasing and that can form a threat for the vulnerable South Pole area. Research from Maastricht University provides a possible solution: market the visitor rights to the highest bidder.
Tourism in Antarctica has grown dramatically. In 1985, just a few thousand people visited the area but in the season 2007/2008 more than 40,000 did the same. A number of parties are concerned about the effects of this rapid growth with respect to safety, the environment, the scale of tourism and the lack of financial resources for monitoring and enforcement purposes. They also have doubts about how this growth can be reconciled with the basic principles of the Antarctic Treaty System ATS.
Antarctica is not a sovereign state and so legislation is difficult. With strict guidelines and codes of conduct, the umbrella organisation of Antarctic tour operators, IAATO, has been able to dispel many of the concerns. However, this self-regulation is no absolute guarantee for a healthy tourism industry on Antarctica.
Visitor rights
One possible solution is that of marketable visitor rights, as is already used in the climate policy by means of trading in CO2 emission rights. First of all a maximum annual number of tourist days in Antarctica will be set. To ensure a smooth transition, this maximum will be set higher than the actual number of tourists days used. As soon as the demand for holiday days in Antarctica is higher than the maximum, the rights to the days will have a certain value.
By awarding the rights to the ATS, the income can be used, for example, for monitoring and enforcement purposes, issues for which there is little money at present. The visitor rights will be auctioned: sold to the highest bidder. Then the buyers are free to trade the rights further. This will ensure that the available 'space' in tourist days will be used for the most profitable forms of tourism. This system of marketable visitor rights could allow three objectives to be realised: the scale of tourism and with this its effects will be limited, an urgently desired new source of funding will become available for monitoring and enforcement, and the tourism trade in the Antarctic area will remain financially healthy.
Polar research
The study Sustainable Tourism in the Antarctic Peninsula: Future Pathways and Policies is being funded by the Netherlands Polar Programme. The assessment of grant applications and the realisation and coordination of the Polar Programme is the responsibility of NWO/ALW.
The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)
Visitor rights
One possible solution is that of marketable visitor rights, as is already used in the climate policy by means of trading in CO2 emission rights. First of all a maximum annual number of tourist days in Antarctica will be set. To ensure a smooth transition, this maximum will be set higher than the actual number of tourists days used. As soon as the demand for holiday days in Antarctica is higher than the maximum, the rights to the days will have a certain value.
By awarding the rights to the ATS, the income can be used, for example, for monitoring and enforcement purposes, issues for which there is little money at present. The visitor rights will be auctioned: sold to the highest bidder. Then the buyers are free to trade the rights further. This will ensure that the available 'space' in tourist days will be used for the most profitable forms of tourism. This system of marketable visitor rights could allow three objectives to be realised: the scale of tourism and with this its effects will be limited, an urgently desired new source of funding will become available for monitoring and enforcement, and the tourism trade in the Antarctic area will remain financially healthy.
Polar research
The study Sustainable Tourism in the Antarctic Peninsula: Future Pathways and Policies is being funded by the Netherlands Polar Programme. The assessment of grant applications and the realisation and coordination of the Polar Programme is the responsibility of NWO/ALW.
The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)
Antarctica Current Events and Antarctica News RSSWest Antarctic ice sheet may not be losing ice as fast as once thought
New ground measurements made by the West Antarctic GPS Network (WAGN) project, composed of researchers from The University of Texas at Austin, The Ohio State University, and The University of Memphis, suggest the rate of ice loss of the West Antarctic ice sheet has been slightly overestimated.
Last time carbon dioxide levels were this high: 15 million years ago, scientists report
You would have to go back at least 15 million years to find carbon dioxide levels on Earth as high as they are today, a UCLA scientist and colleagues report Oct. 8 in the online edition of the journal Science.
NASA flies to Antarctica for largest airborne polar ice survey
NASA begins a series of flights Oct. 15 to study changes to Antarctica's sea ice, glaciers and ice sheets. The flights are part of Operation Ice Bridge, a six-year campaign that is the largest airborne survey ever made of ice at Earth's polar regions.
Peering under the ice of a collapsing polar coast
Starting this month, a giant NASA DC-8 aircraft loaded with geophysical instruments and scientists will buzz at low level over the coasts of West Antarctica, where ice sheets are collapsing at a pace far beyond what scientists expected a few years ago.
Laser technique has implications for detecting microbial life forms in Martian ice
An innovative technique called L.I.F.E. imaging used successfully to detect bacteria in frozen Antarctic lakes could have exciting implications for demonstrating signs of life in the polar regions of Mars.
Algae and pollen grains provide evidence of remarkably warm period in Antarctica's history
For Sophie Warny, LSU assistant professor of geology and geophysics and curator at the LSU Museum of Natural Science, years of patience in analyzing Antarctic samples with low fossil recovery finally led to a scientific breakthrough.
Global public health the focus of scientific conference
Counterfeit and adulterated food and drugs and advances in measurement science used to detect them emerged as key themes of the Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) hosted by the U.S. Pharmacopeial (USP) Convention.
MSU scientist helps map potato genome; move will improve crop yield
It's been cultivated for at least 7,000 years and spread from South America to grow on every continent except Antarctica. Now the humble potato has had its genome sequenced.
University of Toronto study shows climate change will lead to less ultraviolet radiation over northern high latitudes
Physicists at the University of Toronto have discovered that changes in the Earth's ozone layer due to climate change will reduce the amount of ultraviolet (UV) radiation in northern high latitude regions such as Siberia, Scandinavia and northern Canada.
New CO2 data helps unlock the secrets of Antarctic formation
The link between declining CO2 levels in the earth's atmosphere and the formation of the Antarctic ice caps some 34 million years ago has been confirmed for the first time in a major research study.
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