Management of Glaciated Landscapes (Edexcel A Level Geography)

Involvement of Stakeholders

• There are a number of different stakeholders and approaches involved in managing the challenges posed by glaciated landscapes

• Approaches range from conservationists wanting to fully protect through to sustainable management and multiple economic use by TNCs and governments

Management of Cold Environments

Stakeholder Involvement in Managing Glacial Landscapes

• Strategy used does depend on the area and immediate situation

• In some parts, there is a need to be pro-active to avert a crisis, in other parts, there is time to plan

• For most places, there are a combination of strategies that are appropriate which includes zoning and buffering with areas of economic developments, i.e. national parks

Legislation to Protect & Conserve Landscapes

• A legislative framework can be developed at a number of levels which aim to protect and conserve cold environments

• Environmental sensitivity is a key reason for the level of approaches needed

• Areas that have a high environmental value such as SSSI and National Nature Reserves often require different levels of legislation

• Significant differences occur because of differences in scale from local to global

• For instance:

  • Successful legislation, because of global warming, requires not only coordinated approaches at global, national, and local scales but also adaptation and mitigation approaches, therefore, there is a need for a variety of management strategies

• These can be effective if they a closely monitored and policed

• Mandatory legislation tends to be far more effective in protection and conservation and NGOs work towards initiating and maintaining them

• Issues arise when environments that need protecting extent beyond one border, and include:

  • Contrasting attitudes toward exploitation, conservation, and management of resources

  • Different legal systems between countries

  • Differences in available human and financial resources

  • International relationships may be strained, making access or agreements difficult to complete

Antarctica - an active glaciated landscape

• A key global management strategy that has successfully managed an active glaciated landscape is the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS)

• Antarctica is unique in that there are no indigenous populations living in the area and the territory has multiple international territorial claims

• Through a global agreement, threats to this landscape have been effectively reduced through:

  • Stopping any resource exploitation

  • Freezing all sovereignty claims

  • Management of tourism

• With over 100,000 visitors to Antarctica annually,  the area is threatened by degradation

• Protocols adopted in 1966 and subsequently added to the ATS, the framework manages tourism in Antarctica by reducing the potential to damage the landscape

• Strict protocols mean all waste is removed from the area, including wastewater, thereby reducing potential future damage

• However, tourism is both spatially and temporally concentrated in Antarctica

  • Up until 2010, a private, seasonally occupied camp was built next to the Patriot Hills, in Antarctica

  • It acted as a base camp for expeditions and tours to the interior of Antarctica

  • Each year a private runway and heated tents would be built, raising concerns as to the damage being done to the Patriot Hills and the Blue Ice Glacier

  • Eventually, the camp was re-sited 70km away from the hill

Alpine Convention (AC) - an active landscape

• The Alpine Convention (AC) is an international agreement for the sustainable development and protection of the Alps, between the EU and the Alpine countries of:

  • Germany

  • France

  • Italy

  • Liechtenstein

  • Monaco

  • Austria

  • Switzerland

  • Slovenia) and the EU

• The convention sets out steps for the protection and sustainable development of the Alps in terms of:

  • Planning

  • Air pollution

  • Water management

  • Farming

  • Forestry

  • Tourism

  • Energy production

  • Soil protection

  • Traffic management

• The success of this treaty is due, in part, to all signatories being used to international co-operation, as they are either part of the EU or have treaties with the EU 

Factors for Sustainable Legislation of Active and Relict Glacial Landscapes

• The Andes and Himalayas, at this time, do not have a legislative framework and as such, are at risk of degradation and exploitation of their resources

• However, in other areas there are national scale frameworks ranging from:

  • National Parks such as The Lake District in the UK and Yosemite in the USA

  • Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) - Ardersier Glacial Deposits, Scotland

  • Biodiversity Action Plans (BAPs) - The Snowdon Lily, an arctic-alpine flowering plant only known to flower in Eryri (Snowdonia) Wales

• All have varying rules and regulations, not only for each country but right down to a local scale for permitted activities and access

  • The Arctic has over 15% of its area fully protected; due to less competition for land use than other similar areas (e.g. the Alps)

  • Alaska has 56% of its land protected with some form of legislative protective status - from individual animal species to whole forests

  • However, the need for oil and gold has resulted in permission being granted to drill in parts of the protected regions

  • Finland, on the other hand, has a tiered system of protection

    • National Parks for public access

    • Nature Reserves with limited public access

    • Nature Reserves with permit entry only

Global systems of conservation

• Individual species are protected globally by strategies such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) 1973, with many Arctic species on their list, such as walruses and polar bears

  • Global organisations such as Greenpeace argue that they are ineffective as even though whales are protected, limited numbers are still allowed to be caught for scientific purposes - Japan continues to harvest excessive numbers of whales but claim they are for scientific purposes

• The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) publish a Red List for endangered species with polar bears being classified as 'vulnerable'

  • The US has refused to accept this, as it would mean acknowledgment of global warming as a cause of vulnerability

• World Heritage Sites are listed by UNESCO, for their ecological or cultural importance

  • Wrangel Island, Russia was designated an ecological site in 2004 because of its very high level of biodiversity:

    • A large number of polar bear breeding dens

    • Feeding grounds for grey whales

    • The largest population of Pacific walrus 

    • Nesting ground for over 100 migratory birds

  • Both Scott's Hut and Shackleton's Hut on Antarctica, have been included on the World Monuments Watch

  • Shackleton's was included in 2004 and 2006, and Scott's in 2008

  • The hut has been designated an Antarctic Historic Site or Monument following a proposal by New Zealand and the United Kingdom to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting

Discussion

• Apart from Antarctica, many of the legislations are restricted to specifics and are spatially small

• Most are reliant on national government priorities, and these change with each elected government

• Furthermore, legislation does not specifically address the issue of tourism or tourist activities, including the Arctic's SMART model (Sustainable Model for Arctic Regional Tourism), which is only a loose agreement, as economic needs overshadow the needs of the environment

• No amount of legislation can protect against transboundary pollution and the refusal by some countries to acknowledge or address global warming

Global Warming & Management

• Global or climate warming is a context risk:

  • A level of risk that is affected by many different factors and will swap from one set of circumstances (context) to another

• This makes successful management of glaciated landscape complex and challenging and needs a set of co-ordinated approaches at all levels (global, national and local) if it is to succeed

• All fragile landscapes are under threat from a warming planet, especially glaciers and permafrost regions 

• This has current and predicted impacts on these environments, for example:

  • Since 1960, average air temperatures at the Arctic, has increased by more than 2°C

  • The extent and thickness of the sea ice has declined

  • Coupled with changes in seasonal melt; ice-dependent animals are at risk

  • The far northern Canadian polar bears are expected to face starvation and reproductive failure by 2100

  • 95% of all glaciers have a negative mass balance and are retreating

  • There is uncertainty surrounding how Antarctica's ice sheet will react to global warming

  • The Arctic is expected to be ice free in summer by 2050

 Present and Future Impacts of Global Warming

Co-operation

• International legislation and local protection cannot protect glacial environments totally from the context risk of global warming

• Action needs to be a co-operation to reduce global greenhouse emissions in the long term

• These can be through mitigation and adaptation strategies: