French Southern and Antarctic Lands

Terres australes et antarctiques françaises (TAAF)

Official flag Coat of arms
Official language	French
Prefect	Michel Champon
Internet TLD	.tf

The French Southern and Antarctic Lands (French: Terres australes et antarctiques françaises, abbreviated TAAF), full name Territory of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (French: Territoire des Terres australes et antarctiques françaises), consist of:

1. a group of volcanic islands in the southern Indian Ocean, south of Africa, approximately equidistant between Africa, Antarctica and Australia. This part alone is defined as the French Southern Territories internationally.
2. Adélie Land. French sovereignty exercises over this part of the Antarctica continent according to the Antarctic Treaty System.

These lands are not the same as France Antarctique, a former French colony in Brazil.

Administration

TAAF Administrator's flag

The French Southern and Antarctic Lands have formed a territoire d'outre-mer (an overseas territory) of France since 1955. Formerly, they were administered from Paris by an administrateur supérieur assisted by a secretary-general; since December 2004, however, their administrator has been a préfet, currently Michel Champon, with headquarters in Saint-Pierre on Réunion Island.

The territory is divided into four districts:

⁽¹⁾Most other countries do not recognize the French claim to Adélie Land.
⁽²⁾The prefect of the TAAF has been in charge of those islands since 2005, but they are not part of the TAAF and, unlike the TAAF, they are not part of the EU. The website of the TAAF do not mention their population. The data are not included in the totals.

Each district is headed by a district chief, which has powers similar to those of a French mayor (including recording births and deaths and being an officer of judicial police).

Because there is no permanent population, there is no elected assembly, nor does the territory send representatives to the national parliament.

Geography

Map of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (Adélie Land not shown)

The territory includes Île Amsterdam, Île Saint-Paul, Îles Crozet, and Îles Kerguelen in the southern Indian Ocean near 43°S, 67°E, along with the French-claimed sector of Antarctica, Adélie Land, named by French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville after his wife.

The "Adélie Land" of about 432,000 km² and the islands, totaling 7781 km², have no indigenous inhabitants, though in 1997 there were about 100 researchers whose numbers varied from winter (July) to summer (January).

Île Amsterdam and Île Saint-Paul are extinct volcanoes; the highest point in the territory is Mont Ross on Îles Kerguelen at 1850 meters. There are no airstrips on the islands and the 1232 kilometers of coastline have no ports or harbors, only offshore anchorages.

The islands in the Indian Ocean are supplied by the special ship Marion Dufresne sailing out of Le Port in Réunion Island. Terre Adélie is supplied by Astrolabe sailing out of Hobart in Tasmania.

However, the territory has a merchant marine fleet totaling (in 1999) 2,892,911 GRT / 5,165,713 DWT, including seven bulk carriers, five cargo ships, ten chemical tankers, nine container ships, six liquified gas carriers, 24 petroleum tankers, one refrigerated cargo ship, and ten roll-on/roll-off (RORO) carriers. This fleet is maintained as a subset of the French register that allows French-owned ships to operate under more liberal taxation and manning regulations than permissible under the main French register. This register, however, is to vanish, replaced by the International French Register ( RIF : Registre International Français).

Economy

The territory's natural resources are limited to fish and crustaceans; economic activity is limited to servicing meteorological and geophysical research stations and French and other fishing fleets.

The main fish resources are Patagonian toothfish and spiny lobster. Both are poached by foreign fleets; because of this, the French Navy and occasionally other services patrol the zone and arrest poaching vessels. Such arrests can result in heavy fines and/or the seizure of the ship.

France used to sell licenses to fish the Patagonian toothfish to foreign fisheries; because of overfishing, it is now restricted to a small number of fisheries from Réunion Island.

The territory takes in revenues of about $18 million a year.

Marion Dufresne can host a limited number of fee-paying tourists, who will be able to visit the islands as the ship calls.

Miscellany

The French Southern Territories (i.e. excluding Adélie Land) is given the following country codes: FS (FIPS) and TF (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2).

See also

• French overseas departments and territories
• Administrative divisions of France
• Islands controlled by France in the Indian and Pacific oceans

External links

• Official site
• French Southern and Antarctic Lands at the CIA World Factbook
• Southern & Antarctic Territories
• Crozet Archipelago
• Kerguelen Archipelago
• Terre Adélie

French overseas departments and territories

Departments1 Guadeloupe  ·  French Guiana  ·  Martinique  ·  Réunion Overseas communities2 Mayotte  (collectivité départementale)  ·  French Polynesia  (pays d'outre-mer)  ·  Saint-Pierre and Miquelon  (collectivité territoriale)  ·  Wallis and Futuna  (territoire) Special status New Caledonia Uninhabited lands French Southern Territories  (Amsterdam Island · Saint-Paul Island · Crozet Islands · Kerguelen Islands · Adélie Land)  ·  Clipperton  ·  Scattered islands in the Indian Ocean 1 These overseas departments are also overseas regions. Guadeloupe currently includes Saint-Barthélemy and Saint-Martin which in 2003 voted to become separate collectivités d'outre-mer ; the change will be implemented in early 2007. 2 Each overseas community has its own status (indicated in brackets).

Peri-Antarctic countries and overseas territories

Argentina  ·  Australia (Heard Island and McDonald Islands · Macquarie Island)  ·  Chile  ·  Falkland Islands  ·  French Southern and Antarctic Lands  ·  New Zealand (Campbell Island)  ·  Norway (Bouvetøya)  ·  South Africa (Prince Edward Islands)  ·  South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

Outlying territories of European countries

	Territories under European sovereignty but closer to continents other than Europe (see inclusion criteria for further information)
Denmark	Arctic	Grønland (Kalaallit Nunaat)
France	Atlantic and Caribbean	Guadeloupe (Guadeloupe, Saint-Barthélemy et Saint-Martin) • Martinique • Saint-Pierre et Miquelon
	Indian Ocean	Mayotte • Réunion • Îles Éparses (Bassas da India, Île Europa, Île Juan da Nova, Îles Glorieuses, Île Tromelin)
	Pacific	Île de Clipperton • Nouvelle-Calédonie (Kanaky) • Polynésie française (Îles Marquises, l'Archipel des Tuamotu, l'Archipel de la Société) • Wallis et Futuna
	South America	Guyane française
	Southern Ocean	Terres australes et antarctiques françaises (Îles Amsterdam et Saint-Paul, l'Archipel Crozet, Îles Kerguelen)
Italy	Mediterranean	Pantelleria • Isole Pelagie (Lampedusa, Linosa, Lampione)
Netherlands	Caribbean	Aruba • Nederlandse Antillen (Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten)
Norway	Southern Ocean	Bouvetøya
Portugal	Atlantic	Arquipélago dos Açores • Arquipélago da Madeira
Spain	North Africa	Ceuta • Melilla • Plazas de soberanía menores (Chafarinas, Vélez de la Gomera, Alhusemas)
	Atlantic	Islas Canarias
United Kingdom	Atlantic and Caribbean	Anguilla • Bermuda • British Virgin Islands • Cayman Islands • Falkland Islands • Montserrat • Saint Helena (Ascension, Saint Helena, Tristan da Cunha, Gough) • Turks and Caicos Islands
	Indian Ocean	British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago)
	Pacific	Pitcairn Islands (Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie, Oeno)
	Southern Ocean	South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

Antarctic territorial claims
Adélie Land Argentine Antarctica Australian Antarctic Territory British Antarctic Territory Antarctic Chilean Territory Ross Dependency Queen Maud Land · Peter I Island Former claim: New Swabia  (1939–1945)