The Antarctic Specially Protected Species conservation management tool: Development, use and future outlook

Protection of specific species, generally through the implementation of an associated action plan, is a conservation tool used commonly in areas under national jurisdiction. The Antarctic Treaty area is under international consensus-based governance through the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM), which first provided for the designation of Antarctic Specially Protected Species (SPS) in 1964. Over the past 60 years, only the fur seals (genus Arctocephalus) and Ross seal (Ommatophoca rossii) have been listed as SPS, with the fur seals subsequently having been de-listed in 2006. The SPS conservation tool has therefore remained little used by the ATCM. The Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP) was established to provide advice on environmental issues to the ATCM. Through its Five-year Work Plan and Climate Change Response Work Programme, the CEP agreed to develop management actions to maintain or improve the conservation status of threatened species, e.g., through SPS Action Plans. To help the CEP in its work, we examined the history of SPS designation under the Antarctic Treaty system, considered the current conservation status of Antarctic species as provided in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and considered how the SPS conservation tool might be utilised in the future to safeguard Antarctic biodiversity. Consideration of SPS designation for the macaroni penguin Eudyptes chrysolophus population within the Antarctic Treaty area might be appropriate. However, the emperor penguin Aptenodytes forsteri should remain a priority for SPS designation in order to minimise further anthropogenic pressures on this climate change-vulnerable species.