남극 관광의 관리와 규제에 관한 연구

Antarctic tourism has grown rapidly in scale, with tens of thousands of tourists visiting Antarctica every year. Traditional mode of antarctic tourism consists of ship-borne tourism and scenic flights to Antarctica. Its pattern, however, has been diversified and adventure activities have been increased recently. These extension of Antarctic tourism was not predicted at the time of the adoption of the Antarctic treaty in 1959. The growth of Antarctic tourism activities has positive aspects in one way, however, it causes many concerns in the other way that it could have adverse effects on the Antarctic environment and ecosystem. Actually the cases that Antarctic ecosystem has been injured by the tourists are exposed. The Antarctic Treaty has regulated Antarctic tourism through a series of regulatory measures since 1966. And the Protocol to Antarctic Treaty on Environmental Protection, being added to Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) in 1991, requires activities undertaken in the Antarctic Treaty area, including tourism, to be followed by the obligations not to threaten the Antarctic environment or ecosystem. And the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO), started in 1991, has drawn up voluntary guidelines and has required those organizers and operators conducting tourism in the Antarctic to abide by requirements following these guidelines. Like this, the regulation of Antarctic tourism has been implemented through ATS and IAATO. The problem is that these existing regulatory measures, the provisions of the protocol and guidelines are inadequate to manage and regulate the increasing antarctic tourism and its changing pattern, and to provide the systematic means to monitor the environmental impacts of Antarctic tourism activities. Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM), therefore, has addressed the Antarctic tourism as the main issue of its annual meeting. This paper focuses on proposing ways to minimize the impacts on the Antarctic environment and ecosystem of Antarctic tourism and to manage and regulate Antarctic tourism effectively. For this, we review the current circumstances and environmental impacts of Antarctic tourism, and outline existing regulatory measures of Antarctic tourism through ATS and IAATO, and the discussion process in the ATCM. Finally, we propose the effective way of management and regulation of Antarctic tourism.