Polar Ecology - Conservation Efforts

Conservation Efforts

Whoever owns the land is responsible or managing it. And the owners of the land differ between the Antarctic and Arctic and also within the polar regions. In the Arctic, there are six nations that own the land about 60°N. These nations include: Canada, USSR, Finland, USA, Denmark, Iceland and Norway (Stonehouse, 193). There have been international treaties set up so there are no disputes. These nations have also have set their government to manage the land properly. They have set up national parks, land for wilderness, and also land for research. In the polar regions there have been laws set up to manage the amount of visitors, There have been rules set up allowing only certain amount of mining done and other measures to protect the environment from damages.

In the Antarctic the owners of the land are less clear. Some areas of Antarctica are controlled by the French, while other areas are controlled by South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK (Stonehouse, 194). Whoever owns Antarctic is still unclear therefore many other countries have put out scientific stations. The Antarctic Treaty of 1961 was established to make sure all the conflicts were resolved about who owned the land. This and other treaties have shown interest in helping to conserve the Antarctic region. All of these countries have conservation laws. These laws manage the amount of hunting in the area, monitor invasive species, and control burning and settlement.