Strategic thinking and the antarctic wilderness: Contrasting alternative futures

Abstract

The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty outlines a vision for the Antarctic wilderness, and together with its six annexes, forms a framework that can readily serve as a basis for strategic thinking for environmental protection. Baumgartner and Korhonen (2010) defined the notion of ‘strategic thinking’ as characterised by three interrelated and distinct dimensions: strategy process, strategy content and strategy context. We use this framework to examine how strategic thinking is applied to protect the Antarctic wilderness. Since the Protocol came into force in 1998, the Committee for Environmental Protection and the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings have adopted various ad hoc forms of strategic processes and have had varying amounts of strategic content in their discussions and decisions. Despite the protected status of the Antarctic Treaty area and the consideration of environmental issues in deliberations by Antarctic Treaty states, the strategic context of the region results in intense local, regional and global development pressures. Environmental protection may feature in a ‘Business-As-Usual’ future for the Antarctic, but on the margins rather than as a central guiding principle, risking a ‘paper park’ future. Environmental groups have called for a future Antarctica that includes the elements of wilderness, strategic thinking, international cooperation and stabilisation of the human footprint. We contend that Antarctic Treaty parties, encouraged by environmental groups and other actors, should ensure that implementing the objective and environmental principles of the Protocol becomes both a reality for the present and also a strategic vision for the longer term.