Flag of the French Southern Territories

What the flag of the French Southern Territories looks like

The flag has a blue field with a small tricolor of blue, white and red in the upper hoist corner. The rest of the field carries the white letters TAAF, standing for Terres australes et antarctiques françaises, and five white stars. The stars are arranged in the pattern of the Southern Cross. The proportions are 2:3.

The French Southern Territories flag emoji uses the same layout. The flag in the corner is the flag of France.

French Southern Territories flag meaning

The French tricolor shows that the territory belongs to France. The stars stand for the five districts of the territory: the Crozet Islands, the Kerguelen Islands, Saint-Paul and Amsterdam islands, the Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean, and Adélie Land. The Southern Cross is a constellation that can only be seen from the southern hemisphere. The blue background suggests the southern ocean.

History of the territory and the flag

The islands were first administered by France as part of Madagascar. In 1955 they became a separate overseas territory, with a chief administrator based on Réunion. France claims Adélie Land in Antarctica, although claims there are suspended under the Antarctic Treaty. For decades the territory used the French tricolor, and the TAAF flag was introduced in 2007. In that year the Scattered Islands were also added to the territory.

Who lives there

The territory has no permanent population. Several hundred scientists and technicians stay at stations such as Port-aux-Français on the Kerguelen Islands, the main base, and the numbers change with the seasons. Most of the land is protected as a nature reserve.

Fishing in the territory's waters, mostly for Patagonian toothfish, is regulated by France, and large parts of the islands are protected as nature reserves. The Kerguelen Islands are thousands of kilometers from the nearest inhabited land, and supplies arrive by ship from Réunion.