There are two potential conservation threats posed by activities in the Antarctic: the over-exploitation of living resources, and the impact on the ecological systems of human activities such as the logistic support of scientific expeditions, tourism and mineral exploitation. These two aspects are explored in turn below. In each case the problems of reconciling conservation and development within Antarctica are complicated by the fact that the ownership of the area is either in dispute or in doubt.

Exploitation of living resources

In the case of direct exploitation of Antarctic living resources we are concerned only with the marine environment. This is particularly a problem since the Southern Ocean is one of the few areas where productive continental shelf waters do not lie within an operating 200-mile EEZ (the exception within the Southern Ocean being around the lies de Kerguelen, where the French authorities have imposed one). It is thus comparable to most of the waters over continental shelves in the pre-UNCLOS era. Much of the over-exploitation of the world's fish resources that occurred in the years before UNCLOS was directly attributable to this lack of ownership. Hardin's ‘tragedy of the commons’ has a direct parallel in fisheries where, in the absence of control, new investment is attracted into a fishery until profitability is entirely dissipated and the resource depleted.