Balancing the dual mandate of conservation and visitor use at a Canadian world heritage site in an era of rapid climate change

Abstract

National parks in Canada operate under the dual mandate of conservation and visitor use, which involves balancing ecological integrity and nature-based tourism activities. Climate-induced environmental change may increase the existing tension between conservation and visitor use as major tourism resources located in protected areas (PAs) are projected to undergo large-scale changes. This study draws upon the behavioural approach, scenario planning, and landscape visualizations to examine the relationship between climate change impacts, visitor perceptions, and visitor experience management at the Athabasca Glacier in Jasper National Park, Canada. Four tourism development scenarios defined by two management drivers (ecological integrity and visitor demand) with corresponding storylines and visualizations were developed for 2050. The visualized scenarios were presented to visitors (n?=?304) in a survey to understand potential implications on visitor satisfaction. The results suggest that park managers need to find a balance between ecological integrity and visitor use in a way that ensures commercialized tourism development is limited, educational material is prioritized, and ecological integrity is maintained. While understanding the behaviour of future tourists is complex, it is a critical component of climate change adaptation planning and decision-making processes that needs to be prioritized by policymakers and PAs managers.     

Career Identity and its Relation to Career Anchors and Career Satisfaction: The Case of Convention and Exhibition Industry Professionals in Asia

This paper explores career identity and its relation to career anchors and career satisfaction, key demographic and job variables, specific to convention and exhibition (C&E) industry professionals in Asia. It reviews the key literature relating to career identity and career anchors, which is followed by a discussion of findings of an online survey of C&E industry professionals in Asia. Study results indicate that the majority of C&E professionals displayed a strong cognitive and affective identification with their career in the C&E industry. However, career identity varied significantly with the time respondents had been in the industry, job seniority and age. In terms of career anchors, the lifestyle anchor was found to be the most dominant career anchor, followed by challenge and autonomy. Examining the relation between career anchors with career identity revealed that the lifestyle anchor was more important to respondents with a weak career identity, whereas the challenge anchor was more important to respondents with a strong career identity. Managerial implications of the study findings and suggestions for future research are provided.     

Gas storage valuation under limited market liquidity: an application in Germany

Natural gas storages may be valued by applying real options theory. However, it is crucial to take into account that most evolving gas markets, like the German spot market, lack liquidity. This implies that large-scale operation of storages reduces the achievable operating margin since storage operators will pay higher prices for injected gas and earn less on withdrawn gas. Optimal storage operation will take this into account. In this context, considering storage operators as price takers does not account for interdependencies of storage operations and market prices. This paper offers a novel approach to storage valuation taking into account the effect of management decisions on market prices. The methodology proposed within this paper determines the optimal production schedule and value by determining the stochastic differential equation describing the storage value and then applying a finite difference scheme. We find that limited liquidity lowers the storage value and reduces withdrawal and injection amounts. Further, we observe decreasing reservation prices for injection and withdrawing for growing illiquidity resulting in a left shift of injection and withdrawing threshold prices.     

How Do Banks Determine Capital? Evidence from Germany

Abstract. We analyse whether the determinants of capital found in the previous literature hold for the special German banking sector comprising three characteristic banking groups including savings banks, cooperative banks and other banks, which differ regarding their ownership and their access to the capital market. Through the use of accounting data from German banks between 1992 and 2001 we find evidence in accordance with the buffer theory of capital for all German banking groups. Furthermore, we also detect some remarkable differences between the three banking groups regarding their determination of capital due to institutional characteristics.     

Technological change and timing reductions in greenhouse gas emissions

In 2007 Nicholas Stern’s Review (in Science 317:201–202, 2007) estimated that global GDP would shrink by 5–20% due to climate change which brought forth calls to reduce emissions by 30–70% in the next 20 years. Stern’s results were contested by Weitzman (in J Econ Lit XLV(3):703–724, 2007) who argued for more modest reductions in the near term, and Nordhaus (in Science 317:201–202, 2007) who questioned the low discount rate and coefficient of relative risk aversion employed in the Stern Review, which caused him to argue that ‘the central question about global-warming policy—how much how, how fast, and how costly—remain open.’ We present a simulation model developed by Färe et al. (in Time substitution with application to data envelopment analysis, 2009) on intertemporal resource allocation that allows us to shine some light on these questions. The empirical specification here constrains the amount of undesirable output a country can produce over a given period by choosing the magnitude and timing of those reductions. We examine the production technology of 28 OECD countries over 1992–2006, in which countries produce real GDP and CO₂ using capital and labor and simulate the magnitude and timing necessary to be in compliance with the Kyoto Protocol. This tells us ‘how fast’ and ‘how much’. Comparison of observed GDP and simulated GDP with the emissions constraints tells us ‘how costly’. We find these costs to be relatively low if countries are allowed reallocate production decision across time, and that emissions should be cut gradually at the beginning of the period, with larger cuts starting in 2000.