Marine reserve phenomenon in the Pacific islands

Coinciding with increased numbers of global marine reserves, communities in the Pacific islands are establishing unprecedented number of periodically-harvested and indefinitely-closed marine reserves. An integrated ecological and social comparative methodology is used to examine the motivations and outcomes of reserves in Vanuatu. Communities establish permanent reserves due to concerns about human impacts on reefs, while others establish periodic reserves in response to declining resources. Local knowledge suggests that both reserve types are effective, although validation by underwater surveys was inconclusive. Community support for both reserve types is strong, suggesting that the marine reserve phenomenon in Pacific will continue.     

Social identity, perception and motivation in adaptation to climate risk in the coffee sector of Chiapas, Mexico

Most investigation into climate adaptation to date has focused on specific technological interventions and socio-economic aspects of adaptive capacity. New perspectives posit that socio-cognitive factors may be as or more important in motivating individuals to take adaptive actions. Recent research indicates that incorporating insights from motivation theory can enhance theorization of adaptive capacity. Yet unexplored, and what we propose here, is the addition of social identity to models of adaptive capacity and adaptation. To apply this conceptual framework, the first author undertook in-depth interviews with a sample of farmers who had participated in broader surveys the previous year to explore their perceptions of their social identity, climate-related information and its sources, and climate risk. These interviews elicited compelling evidence that social identity mediates between risk perception and adaptation through its influence on motivation. Interviews revealed significant links between social identity and perception of information, risk perception and adaptation, of which the most salient were the relative credibility and legitimacy of information sources (related to us vs. them social group differentiation); the role of coffee organizations; and ethnicity and geographic marginalization. Strong in-group identity and perceptions of potentially influential out-groups such as the scientific community appear to particularly influence perception and use of information. These findings have rich policy implications for adaptation management and merit further investigation to identify how, where and why social identity plays a role in climate-risk perception, motivation and adaptation in other geographic areas of vulnerability worldwide.     

Lights, camera … action? Altered attitudes and behaviour in response to the climate change film The Age of Stupid

The film The Age of Stupid depicts the world in 2055 devastated by climate change, combining this with documentary footage which illustrates many facets of the problems of climate change and fossil-fuel dependency. This study investigates the effects of the film on UK viewers’ attitudes and behaviour through a three-stage survey. Analysis of changes in attitudes focussed particularly on respondents’ concern about climate change, motivation to act, fear about the potential for catastrophe, beliefs about responsibility for action, and sense of agency. The film increased concern about climate change, motivation to act, and viewers’ sense of agency, although these effects had not persisted 10-14 weeks after seeing it. It was also successful in promoting some mitigation actions and behavioural change, although respondents reported barriers to further action, such as limited options for improving home energy efficiency among those in rented accommodation. However, filmgoers were atypical of the general public in that they exhibited very high levels of concern about climate change, knowledge about how to reduce their carbon emissions, and contact with organisations campaigning about climate change, before they saw the film. The paper considers how these factors may have enabled viewers to respond to the film as they did, as well as policy implications for those seeking to develop effective climate change communications.     

Detailed insights into the influence of flood-coping appraisals on mitigation behaviour

Insights into flood mitigation behaviour are important because of the ongoing shift to risk-based flood management approaches in Europe and worldwide, which envisage a contribution from flood-prone households to risk reduction. The recent literature on factors that influence flood mitigation behaviour indicates that flood-coping appraisal is an important variable to understand and explain flood mitigation behaviour. Coping appraisal originates from Protection Motivation Theory (PMT), and refers to the cognitive process that people undergo when evaluating their own ability to avoid a certain risk. However, the empirical literature on the importance of coping appraisal is still scarce, and, in particular, little is known about the independent influence of the three single components of coping appraisal on precautionary behaviour: namely, response efficacy, self-efficacy, and response cost. This study presents the results of a recent survey among 752 flood-prone households along the river Rhine in order to provide detailed insights into the influence of the components of flood-coping appraisal on four different types of flood mitigation behaviour: structural building measures, adapted building use, the deployment of flood barriers, and the purchase of flood insurance. The results confirm that flood-coping appraisal is an important variable in terms of precautionary behaviour. In particular, both response efficacy and self-efficacy contribute to the models which explain the four different types of flood-mitigation behaviour. Based on these findings, it is concluded that risk communication should focus more strongly on the potential of flood-mitigation measures to effectively reduce or avoid flood damage, as well as on information about how to implement such measures in practice.     

Dark touristic perception: Motivation,experience and benefits interpreted from the visit to seismic memorial sites in Sichuan province

This study investigates the motivations of Chinese domestic tourists visiting seismic memorial sites after the great Wenchuan earthquake of 2008, and examines their interpretation of experiences and benefits of the visits. Recent research on dark tourism has raised the possibility that people are attracted to death and memorial sites in ways different from other tourist attractions. The study used an empirical research design employing questionnaires to collect data from 255 Chinese domestic visitors at seismic memorial sites in west Sichuan. Analysis revealed that the obligation of commemoration mixed with curiosity represents a different set of travel motivation in dark tourism settings than in other kinds of tourism. In addition, the empirical evidence also suggests an interrelated pattern between motivations, experiences and benefits. This study implies that Chinese domestic tourists were attracted in ways different from other tourist attractions both because they tended to fulfill their obligation of commemoration and were interested in destruction; and visitor experiences played an important mediating role between travel motivations and benefits gained.     

Measuring effectiveness,efficiency and equity in an experimental Payments for Ecosystem Services trial

There is currently a considerable effort to evaluate the performance of Payments for Ecosystem Services as an environmental management tool. The research presented here contributes to this work by using an experimental design to evaluate Payments for Ecosystem Services as a tool for supporting biodiversity conservation in the context of an African protected area. The trial employed a ‘before and after’ and ‘with and without’ design. We present the results of social and ecological surveys to investigate the impacts of the trial in terms of its effectiveness, efficiency and equity. We find the scheme to be effective at bringing about additional conservation outcomes. However, we also found that increased monitoring is similarly effective in the short term, at lower cost. The major difference – and arguably the significant contribution of the Payments for Ecosystem Services – was that it changed the motives for protecting the park and improved local perceptions both of the park and its authority. We discuss the implications of these results for conservation efficiency, arguing that efficiency should not be defined in terms of short-term cost-effectiveness, but also in terms of the sustainability of behavioral motives in the long term. This insight helps us to resolve the apparent trade-off between goals of equity and efficiency in Payments for Ecosystem Services.     

地质遗迹旅游资源化：概念、动力及途径

地质遗迹是具有独特观赏价值和科普价值的自然遗产,旅游资源化是地质遗迹保护与利用协调发展的最佳方式。提出地质遗迹旅游资源化的概念,分析地质遗迹旅游资源化的动力和途径,认为地质遗迹旅游资源化是旅游需求层次的提高、地质遗迹的保护、地质产业转型、国家政策的支持、地质公园建设的成功5种因素共同作用的结果。地质遗迹向旅游资源的转化需经过地质遗迹调查、地质遗迹评价、旅游产品开发、完善解说系统等步骤。