The French Southern and Antarctic Lands (TAAF) are made up of five districts: the Crozet archipelago, the Kerguelen archipelago, the Saint-Paul and Amsterdam islands (these three districts constituting the Southern Lands, or southern districts), Adélie land in Antarctica, and the Scattered Islands. The latter, attached to the TAAF since the law of February 21, 2007, bring together in the Mozambique Channel the tropical islands of the Glorieuses archipelago, Juan de Nova, Europa, and Bassas da India, as well as Tromelin to the north of Reunion. The associated exclusive economic zone (EEZ), of 2.3 million km² or more than 20% of French maritime territory, allows France to be the second maritime power in the world.

A territory without a permanent population or elected officials, the TAAF are placed under the authority of a prefect, a senior administrator, who exercises all public action there. The higher administration ensures missions of sovereignty, support for scientific research, preservation of biodiversity, and logistics.

The multiplicity of these missions, the isolation of territories, the maintenance of scientific activities in extreme and isolated environments, require the TAAF to set up a complex logistics chain, ensured in particular by their supply ship, Le Marion Dufresne , and their patrol boat. polar icebreaker, L'Astrolabe .