Description
Ice cliffs. The French Southern and Antarctic Lands (TAAF) are an overseas territory which has been created in 1955 and which comprises the Crozet and Kerguelen archipelagos, the islands of Saint-Paul and Amsterdam, the Adélie Land on the Antarctic continent, and, since 2007, the Scattered Islands (Europa, Glorieuses, Juan de Nova, Bassas da India and Tromelin). The Southern Islands are noteworthy for their extreme isolation and their very specific weather conditions that have contributed to a high rate of endemism as well as to some very particular adaptations by the fauna and flora. Adélie Land has been protected since 1959 by the Antarctic Treaty that proclaimed that the continent shall be a “land of peace and science”. The treaty has subsequently been complemented by the Madrid Protocol (1991). The biological heritage of these territories is to this day almost unspoiled, which highlights their environmental value for the world. In the name of the international community, France is the warrantor of the preservation of these islands.