Future challenges in environmental management of national antarctic programs

Abstract

This chapter attempts to outline the main challenges that National Antarctic Programs (NAP) likely will have to face in the future, as a consequence of changing circumstances stemming both from inside and outside of the Antarctic continent. Such circumstances will likely be the ultimate result of currently observed ongoing trends. Issues challenging the NAPs’ environmental management framework in the resulting future scenarios will be analysed, in conjunction with tools aimed to check and control the NAPs’ environmental performance. The main objective of this exercise is to provide Antarctic managers–and other involved decision-makers–with a basis for understanding the future, and thereby enable them to act with these likely future situations in mind.