Do Antarctic Specially Protected Areas Provide Further Entrenchment of a Sovereign Claim?

• Main Author: Martin, Jonathan Andrew
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: University of Canterbury 2016
• Subjects: Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10092/13835

Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (ASPA) are the main designation bestowed onto areas deemed to have values that need protection. There has been an inconsistent method by which party states have selected areas to be put forward as ASPA. No overriding framework has been confirmed and applied universally across the management of protected areas. Neither has there been a concerted effort to create a network of ASPA that are representative of the diverse eco-systems in Antarctica. The locations of existing ASPA are within the confines of sectors subject to a sovereign claim. There is a correlation between the party responsible for the management of an ASPA and the location of the ASPA. The consequence of this correlation is evidence of an effort by claimant parties to further entrench their sovereign claims and exercise a degree of control over areas within their claim.