Visitor satisfaction with a key wildlife tourism destination within the context of a damaged landscape

Wildlife tourism is a growing industry globally and visitor satisfaction is vital to ensure its long-term sustainability. The Lower Kinabatangan River is a premier wildlife tourism destination that is affected by surrounding land uses and needs careful management to ensure it continues to provide positive wildlife tourism experiences. As little is known about the motivations and satisfaction of tourists with this experience, a visitor survey was conducted along the Lower Kinabatangan River with 346 surveys completed. The attribute ‘Interest in viewing wildlife’ had the highest mean level of importance and satisfaction (mean?=?4.54 and 4.1, respectively, on a 5-point scale). Respondents were very satisfied with their wildlife tour experience (85%) and would recommend the experience to their friends (87%). However, almost half of respondents (47%) felt more needed to be done to protect the Kinabatangan River and wildlife. Although respondents were satisfied overall with their experience, they also expressed concerns over the number of boats and the protection of the River. Comments focused on the presence of rubbish in the River, intrusion of oil palm and the loss of forest. Many issues are beyond the management realms of tour operators but will impact on the future of the industry.     

Close encounters of the dolphin kind: Contrasting tourist support for feeding based interactions with concern for dolphin welfare

The tourism demand for close interactions with wildlife has increased in the last few decades. At the same time, public concern for animal welfare has also increased. Tourists are drawn to the thrill of close encounters with charismatic wildlife in their natural setting which depend on the reliability of wildlife being in a certain place at a given time. Food provisioning is a form of operant conditioning that uses food rewards to attract wildlife, promoting spatially and temporally reliable wildlife encounters that satisfy the desire for close encounters with wildlife. However, a range of effects counter to wildlife welfare and conservation may result from both the provisioning and close encounters. Our study examines visitors' attitude and support towards regulated provisioning and identifies a gap between visitors' desire for close-up encounters, their concern for dolphin welfare and the documented negative impacts of close encounters and food-provisioning.     

Chinese contractor involvement in wildlife protection in Africa: Case study of Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway Project,Kenya

As their sales of projects in Africa increase at a high annual growth rate, Chinese contractors are encountering new challenges regarding wildlife protection during project construction. Using the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway project constructed by the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) as a case study, we researched how the CRBC involves itself in wildlife protection throughout the project. The results state that, although the CRBC's efforts show its commitment to wildlife protection, its overall involvement in this domain is far from successful. Chinese contractors need to improve their effort regarding wildlife protection for future projects.     

Determinants of livelihood diversification: The case wildlife tourism in four coastal communities in Oaxaca,Mexico

Diversification is a process by which households increase the number of economic activities in different sectors to improve their well-being and chance of survival. The aim of this research is to study the determinants of livelihood diversification with a specific emphasis on wildlife watching in the coastal communities of Oaxaca, Mexico. Based on household surveys, two econometric models were used to examine the differences regarding the asset determinants for those households increasing the number of economic activities and those involved in wildlife tourism. The results reveal four common variables distributed between capitals and specify that average household age, environmental consciousness, characteristics of the land, membership or participation in an organization (cooperative) and government transfers are determinants of a household's diversification into wildlife tourism. Policy recommendations include focusing on households with young people, providing support for social capital and policy coherence to guarantee basic needs and tourism planning design.     

One federal policy,four different policy contexts: An examination of agri-environmental policy implementation in the Midwestern United States

Much research attention has been given to devolved environmental policies and variation in state adoption of environmental policies. Less attention has been paid to variation in top-down federal policies, including in the agri-environmental arena. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) is the largest working land conservation program in the United States, incentivizing the adoption of conservation practices on active agricultural land through cost-share and technical assistance. While the program is federal, state offices of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) are charged with implementing the program in their state. Qualitative interviews (n = 26) were conducted with NRCS personnel in four Midwestern states to explore similarities and differences between state administrative outputs. Program outputs are determined through a mixture of national, state, and local administrative processes and are driven by dissimilarities in state resource concerns and agricultural systems. The process by which farmers apply for cost-share funding through EQIP is largely the same across states, but states vary in several important outputs, especially resource and conservation practice priority, as well as state and local partnerships. Outreach methods do not tend to vary between states; NRCS districts typically rely on passive recruitment and word-of-mouth recruitment. Divergence in state EQIP outputs constitute a significant difference in the policy context in which farmers make conservation decisions in the Midwest, which has implications for research concerning farmer behavior. While federal policies implemented across the states offer some level of consistency in the setting in which individual land managers make decisions, variation may still exist in many policies that results in different policy outputs.     

Invasive species: The categorization of wildlife in science,policy, and wildlife management

Species categories commonly used in nature conservation, such as protected, endangered, reintroduced, or invasive, are open to various interpretations that can result in diverging and sometimes serious consequences. This is vividly apparent with respect to invasiveness because the categorization of species and individual animals as invasive impacts on how they are treated in practice. This article demonstrates how different constructions of invasiveness in science, policy, and wildlife management can be traced back to different assessments of the origin, behavior, and impact of the invasives. Specifically, the focus is on the different conceptions of space and the role of data in the categorization of invasives. We find that, in science and policy, invasiveness is constructed mainly in terms of the origin and impact of invasives but that these domains differ in how they treat space in their assessment of origin: whereas science uses ecological spaces, such as biogeographical regions, to assess whether a species belongs to, or is invasive in, a certain area, policy uses policy spaces such as countries or states to do so. In assessing the impact of invasives, science argues about including it in its definition, whereas policy requires detailed data about ecological, societal, and economic damage in order to take action. In wildlife management, the focus in the construction of invasiveness shifts from origin and impact to behavior of invasives. This requires detailed data about where the invasives are, where they are going, and what they are doing. By showing the dynamic and context-specific nature of the construction of invasiveness, the article contributes to ongoing research about classifications of nature, their difficulties and ambiguities, and their implementation and consequences in practice.     

When wildlife tourism goes wrong: a case study of stakeholder and management issues regarding Dingoes on Fraser Island, Australia

Images on brochures, web pages and postcards lead to an expectation by tourists and visitors that interaction with Dingoes (Canis lupus Dingo) will be part of their Fraser Island experience. Yet, as the number of tourists to the island increase, so do the reports of Dingo attacks. The first recorded death from such an attack on Fraser Island occurred in April 2001, and was immediately followed by a government-ordered cull of Dingoes. This paper explores issues surrounding both this decision and the management strategies implemented afterwards. Based on interviews with a variety of stakeholders, many conflicting perspectives on human–wildlife interaction as a component of tourism are identified. The conclusion is drawn that while strategies for managing Dingoes are essential, if such attacks are a consequence of humans feeding wildlife and resultant wildlife habituation, then strategies for managing people are also necessary for this example of wildlife tourism to be both successful and sustainable.     

Habitat and commodity production trade-offs in coastal Oregon

Ecological, economic, and social goals are important in natural resource management, and should be analyzed in concert when, for example, one wishes to consider the impact(s) of potential forest policies on such goals. The current article describes a large-scale, integrated trade-off analysis, for coastal Oregon (USA). It considers two key management goals for both private and public forest landowners—producing timber and developing and maintaining wildlife habitat—using variations on typical management policies. The proposed model employs a heuristic to schedule harvests in an attempt to produce a high, even level of timber volume. Constraints include those related to the maximum clearcut size, green-up period, and minimum harvest age. Habitat capability for the northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) is computed using a spatial model, and reported as an output of the forest plan. The spatial model we used is the most advanced methodology for estimating spotted owl habitat quality. The problem formulation accounts for many of the concerns regarding strategic and tactical planning voiced by forest managers in the Pacific Northwest (USA) region. Our analysis suggests that increasing the minimum harvest age of forests in coastal Oregon has the greatest effect (vs. maximum clearcut size and minimum green-up [regrowth] period) on spotted owl habitat capability index levels. At the same time, however, even-flow harvest levels (highest and most even level of timber volume produced over time) are negatively affected as near-term harvests become more difficult to schedule.     

Segmentation by visitor motivation in three Kenyan national reserves

This study addresses the needs of three national reserves in north central Kenya for developing a tourism strategy aimed at enhancing tourist opportunities at the reserves. In order to adequately address visitor needs, the reserve managers must first understand the motivations for different types of visitors. A factor-cluster approach was employed to identify visitor segment profiles based on their motivations for visiting the reserves. A principal components analysis of motivations revealed eight motivation factors, and three distinct visitor segments were identified using an ipsative clustering method. These segments included Escapists, Learners and Spiritualists. Understanding the differences in these visitor segments will help managers of the reserves better provide alternative activities and services to tourists. Management recommendations include providing scenic and expansive landscape viewing opportunities and developing a more competent and knowledgeable ranger corps capable of visitor education and outreach initiatives.