Antarctica provides the world with at least $276 billion in economic benefits each year. (representative)
Tasmania:
All humanity benefits from Antarctica and the surrounding Southern Ocean. To some, these benefits may seem priceless. But in our market-driven world, calculating the economic value of the environment can be a useful tool in gaining support for protecting it.
this is our intention new research. We tally the value of services provided by Antarctica and the Southern Ocean in terms of fisheries, tourism and the various natural processes that support the functioning of the Earth.
The results of it? We calculate that the annual economic value is US$180 billion (A$276 billion). We hope our findings will help prioritize conservation actions in Antarctica and inspire international support to protect the region from the ravages of climate change.
Visible and invisible benefits
Many of the benefits that nature provides to humans are known as “ecosystem services.”
Antarctica and the Southern Ocean offer some services that are invisible to most people. For example, the Southern Ocean absorbs carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, while ice in the region reflects the heat.These processes help regulate Earth’s climate
The Southern Ocean also helps transport water around the globe, helping to distribute heat, fresh water, carbon and nutrients. These are called “moderation” services.
We may consider the value of these services in terms of the costs of not providing them.For example, the Antarctic ice sheet contains 30 million cubic kilometers ice. If global warming causes ice to melt, the impact on coastal communities around the world will be catastrophic.
Other benefits offered by the Antarctic region are even more obvious. For example, humans rely on toothfish and krill for food, medicines and dietary supplements. Warming and acidification of the Southern Ocean will affect fish populations in the region and elsewhere, with some species likely to become extinct.
The Antarctic region also provides cultural services, such as hosting important scientific research. Visitor numbers to Antarctica have surged in recent years.
So how much are these services actually worth to humans? Our study examines this question.
crunch numbers
We use various methods to estimate the value of each service. Some, such as the supply of food, can be easily calculated by looking at the price the market is willing to pay. Other factors, such as avoiding harm from absorbing carbon dioxide, are more difficult to assign a value to.
Let’s start with tourism. The number of visitors to Antarctica, mainly by boat, has increased significantly in recent decades, from about 8,000 per year in 1993-1994 to 105,000 per year in 2022-2023. We estimate the annual value of Antarctic tourism to be approximately US$820 million.
So what about the benefits of fishing? Taking into account the tons of toothfish and krill caught in the area, we estimate the value to be approximately US$370 million per year.
Finally, we estimate the economic value of “regulating services” such as carbon storage, sea level regulation, and light reflection. We do this by multiplying estimates of the value of carbon stored in the Southern Ocean by estimates of the social cost of carbon.
This is a complex calculation, which we explain in more detail in the paper. Overall, we estimate the value of regulatory services in the region to be approximately $179.3 billion per year.
Altogether, the total value of ecosystem services in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean amounts to approximately US$180 billion per year. This is a conservative estimate and does not include some ecosystem services.
For example, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and adjacent ocean gyres distribute Antarctic nutrients around the world and are thought to help increase the value of global fisheries by an estimated $2.8 billion. We do not include it in the above calculations to avoid double counting with other regulatory services.
And because of a lack of data we can’t even roughly estimate the value of scientific work in Antarctica, so that’s also ruled out. But Antarctic research may have prevented significant damage to livelihoods and infrastructure around the world – for example, by monitoring changes in ice and sea levels – and we can expect this contribution to increase in the future.
The area also provides other important services but we do not have enough information to estimate, such as medicinal ingredients that have not yet been discovered.
What does the Antarctic Treaty do?
As the Southern Ocean becomes warmer and more acidic, its natural systems will undergo dramatic changes. This would reduce many of the benefits the Antarctic region provides and come at huge cost to the world. So how should the international community respond?
Antarctica and the Southern Ocean consist of Antarctic Treaty, the treaty was adopted in 1959. The threats we have outlined were not anticipated at the time and are not addressed by the treaty.
Parties to the treaty have the right to protect some ecosystem services, such as tourism, fisheries and science. But it cannot effectively protect other aspects, such as regulating services when threats come from outside the Antarctic region.
The treaty has evolved over the years. Now it must go further to safeguard the huge benefits – economic and otherwise – that the region offers the world.
(author:Rachel Bairdsenior lecturer, University of Tasmania and Natalie StockerProfessor of Economics, University of Tasmania)
(Disclosure Statement:Natalie Stoeckl is a member of the Queensland Sustainable Fisheries Strategy Scientific Panel and is a member of the Coral Reef 2050 Panel and the Wet Tropics Scientific Advisory Committee. Rachel Baird does not work for, consult, own shares in, or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant relationships beyond her academic appointment)
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