29 March 2017:
An international study, led by SCAR President Professor Steven Chown, has questioned the widely held view that Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are in a much better environmental shape than the rest of the world. The study, published today in PLoS Biology and involving an interdisciplinary group of 23 researchers compared the position of Antarctic biodiversity and its management with that globally using the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) Aichi targets.
It follows a meeting of biodiversity, legal and policy experts held in June 2015 to assess Antarctic and Southern Ocean biodiversity and its conservation status in the context of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011 to 2020, developed under the aegis of the CBD and broadly adopted. The meeting was organized by SCAR in partnership with the government of the Principality of Monaco and Monash University and resulted in the publication in 2015 of the Monaco Assessment.
The study published today presents the full assessment, along with comprehensive evidence underpinning the assessment.
“The results have been truly surprising,” said Professor Chown.“While in some areas, such as invasive species management, the Antarctic region is doing relatively well, in others, such as protected area management and regulation of bioprospecting, it is lagging behind,” he said.