Public sector perspectives and policy implications for the Pitons Management Area World Heritage Site,St. Lucia

St. Lucia faces numerous challenges associated with striking a balance between its economic and conservation goals with respect to the Pitons Management Area (PMA) World Heritage Site. Among the various stakeholders, the public sector, which largely constitutes the administrative authorities representing the general public, plays an instrumental role in site management. They are primarily responsible for policy formulation as well as the provision of fiscal incentives and funds to assist in the maintenance of the site. Based on a qualitative inquiry approach, this study explored the perspectives of key persons among pertinent public and non-profit organizations. Semi-structured interviews were conducted among local and national representatives from the public sector. Results revealed that the designation of the PMA as a World Heritage Site has presented both opportunities and challenges to the management of the site. Findings strongly indicate that the integrity and sustainability of the site is at stake due to a lack of commitment, coordination and political will in the public sector.     

Stakeholder engagement in sustainable adventure tourism development in the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve,India

Stakeholder involvement is often cited as critical to sustainable tourism development, but there is limited documentation for niche areas, such as adventure tourism. The main purpose of our research was to understand stakeholder roles in adventure tourism in the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (NDBR), Uttarakhand, India, to identify opportunities for achieving sustainable adventure tourism. Our interviews, treks and other activities revealed that organised adventure activities were still in the early development phase, with trekking being the most popular activity. The roles of various stakeholders are yet to be clearly defined, but the State Forest Department is playing a lead in the rapidly evolving network of relationships among adventure tourism stakeholders. Significant opportunity exists for a more systematic approach to adventure tourism planning that builds on the existing strengths of the various players.     

Environmental and energy-related challenges to sustainable tourism in the United States and China

This article examines the relationship between tourism, energy, and environment. This article approaches tourism as a complex adaptive system composed of consumers, transportation providers, travel intermediaries, and destinations composed of multiple tourism-related companies and other stakeholder groups. Environmental and energy-related challenges of components to the system are examined as well as various units – the system as a whole, enterprises and individuals – within the system. A total of 92 peer-reviewed articles were studied that address ‘energy’ and ‘tourism’ published between 1974 and 2011. Also addressed are the impacts of social and cultural differences between the United States and China concerning responses to environmental and energy-related challenges. This article concludes with recommendations for addressing the challenges associated with such challenges, including building system capacity, technology development and adoption, support of individual behavior change, increasing understanding of the trade-offs and interactions within the system, and adoption of multidisciplinary approaches to these challenges within the tourism system.     

Sustainable tourism for remote atolls in the Pacific

SUMMARY

Coral atolls, as visitor destinations, have received little attention in the literature of tourism on mid-oceanic islands. However, the current trend of nature-based tourism, which involves travelling to relatively remote and undisturbed places, makes the atolls a desirable destination. This paper explores ways of how appropriate tourism can be introduced to atoll society within the context of traditional resource uses and the application of intermediate technologies. With the acceptance of a code of ethics for tourist behaviour and technologies aimed at reducing dependency of foreign imports, atoll tourism could become a viable economic alternative to the continued over-exploitation of marine resources.     

中国冰川旅游资源开发模式与对策研究

中国冰川资源规模巨大,形态各异,在国内旅游市场中具有绝对的垄断性地位。然而,我国冰川旅游发展却较为缓慢,景点稀少,与冰川资源禀赋极不相符,与国外冰川旅游发展差距较大。冰川旅游资源的吸引功能并非由冰川旅游单体决定,往往由冰川及周边景观的组合程度大小决定。鉴于此,中国冰川旅游需要改变以往冰川观光和其他单一景点开发模式,进而向冰川、雪山、森林、草甸、湖泊、峡谷与民族文化组团式开发转变,通过冰川与其他景观的组团式开发模式,扩展其冰川旅游类型与内涵,延伸其高山带山地旅游产业链,提升我国冰川旅游产品品牌价值,以此为我国冰川资源优势转变为经济优势提供理论与实践支持。     

中国市域旅游综合吸引力指数评价

论文以中国338个市域作为旅游客源地和旅游目的地,测算其旅游吸引力指数。以南京市为例,通过GIS空间可视化并分别划分出5个等级旅游目的地及旅游客源地。结果发现南京不同等级旅游目的地呈距离衰减规律,但同时出现区位跨越现象;南京旅游客源地总体上亦呈现距离衰减规律,但也出现远距离客源地等级甚至比近距离客源地等级要高的现象。笔者把吸引指数模型逆思维推演测算出了中国城市总吸引指数排名,并以可达性为基础,根据旅游目的地城市总吸引指数和旅游规模排名位序是否一致划分出中国城市旅游的发展程度现状10种类型,为城市旅游发展提供比较参考。     

城市旅游安全指标体系的构建及实证研究——以杭州为例

旅游者在旅行游览过程中会面临各种安全风险,城市旅游安全管理水平决定了控制和降低风险的能力。首先基于模糊层次分析法构建了城市旅游安全评价的指标体系,随后通过对在杭州居住10年以上、长期从事旅游安全管理的专家进行问卷调查,并对调研数据进行分析,结果表明:杭州市旅游安全风险为中等,风险主要来自灾害性天气,建筑物和娱乐器械的可靠性,以及水源污染等方面;最后,针对上述风险,提出了相应的改进建议。     

Changes in CO2 flux for different recovery processes of desertification in the alpine meadows of Northwest Sichuan北大核心CSCD

Desertification has emerged as a serious threat to the alpine meadows of Northwest Sichuan in recent decades. Artificial vegetation had certain effects on desertification recovery, while how the CO2 flux changed and its reasons are still unclear. During the growing season in 2016 (i.e., from July to September), we selected the desertified alpine meadows with different recovery degrees, including the early stage of restoration, the middle stage of restoration, the late stage of restoration, and control (the unrecovered desertification meadow) as four transects. CO2 flux was measured by the instrument LI-8100, and the microenvironment factors that affected CO2 flux changes were analyzed. The results showed that the carbon sequestration function of desertified alpine meadows gradually increased with the degree of recovery. Net ecosystem exchange (NEE) were -1.61, -3.55, and -4.38 μmol m-2 s-1 in the early, mid-term, and late transects, respectively, and the most dramatic changes occurred from the early stage to mid-term stage, increasing by 120.50%. Both ecosystem respiration (ER) and soil respiration (SR) were enhanced significantly with restoration (P < 0.05). In mid or late July, NEE, ER, and SR reached their maximum values, and thereafter, the indicators varied to near zero (P < 0.05). During the whole growing season, the daily dynamic in CO2 flux for the control alpine meadow was mild and retained the trend of continuous release all day, but that in the desertified alpine meadow was a single peak pattern. Moreover, with restoration process, the peak of CO2 flux increased and reached a peak in the late stage of the recovery process. The regression analysis showed that there was a significant positive correlation between CO2 flux and vegetation coverage, aboveground biomass, and soil moisture (0-5 cm) (P < 0.01), and a weak correlation with 0-5-cm soil temperature (P < 0.01). This indicates that topsoil moisture (5 cm) is a more significant factor for CO2 flux than topsoil temperature during the growing season in the restoration of desertified alpine meadows in Northwest Sichuan. In general, the vegetation recovery significantly improved the carbon-sequestration ability of the desertified alpine meadows during the growing season in Northwest Sichuan, and at the middle stage of restoration, the carbon-sequestration ability improved significantly due to vegetation restoration and increase in topsoil (0-5 cm) moisture. © 2018 Science Press. All rights reserved.     

祁连县天然草地地上生物量及草畜平衡研究

论文利用2013—2014年的MOD13Q1数据、草地地上生物量鲜重实测数据、多年降水数据和统计年鉴数据,建立了祁连县草地地上生物量与牧草鲜重的遥感监测模型以及不同季节放牧草场的理论载畜量模型,分析了天然草地草产量年内动态变化与载畜量平衡状况并对草畜调控进行模拟。结果表明：MODIS增强型植被指数EVI的指数函数可以较好地模拟祁连县草地地上生物量鲜重,精度达到71%;年内牧草生长呈单峰曲线,7月草地可食产量达到峰值 2 322.61 kg/hm²,12月最低,为702.06 kg/hm²;祁连县冷暖季平均可食鲜草产量分别为1 728.14和1 604.70 kg/hm²,年可食鲜草总量分别达到7.74×10⁸和7.82×10⁸ kg;暖季、冷季和全年的理论载畜量分别为1.517 8、0.637 0和0.931 4羊单位/hm²,暖季、冷季和全年的超载率分别为101.70%、261.19%和149.22%;保持现有的家畜数量,需在暖季草场和冷季草场分别补饲牧草0.36×10⁸ 和7.17×10⁸ kg;保持现有草场,则暖季草场和冷季草场分别需要减6.68×10⁴和53.64×10⁴羊单位;暖季不进行补饲,冷季草场家畜在减少40%的情况下,依旧需要补饲1.17×10⁸ kg。     

海河流域草地生态系统服务功能及其价值评估

草地生态系统为人类提供了畜产品和生命支持两个方面的多种服务功能,但人们常关注产品提供功能而忽视生命支持功能。研究采用联合国千年生态系统评估框架,构建了海河流域草地生态系统服务功能的评估指标体系,并以2005年为基准年,运用市场价值法、影子价格法等多种方法对海河流域草地生态系统进行经济价值评估。结果表明,海河流域草地面积为6.67×10¹⁰ m²,提供产品、固碳、保持土壤、净化环境等8项服务功能的总价值为2 216.28×10⁸元,单位面积价值为3.32元/(m²·a)。其中,提供产品的价值量最大,占总价值的31.3%,其次是固碳和营养物质保持功能的价值,分别占总价值的26.8%、22.2%。海河流域草地生态系统除了具有重要的产品提供功能外,固碳、营养物质保持等生命支持功能的巨大经济价值也不容忽视,平衡兼顾草地生态系统的产品提供功能和生命支持功能有助于促进海河流域经济社会发展与生态保护的协调。