A rapid assessment of wildlife tourism risk posed to cetaceans in Asia
Dolphin-watching tourism is growing globally. In developing countries, the typically low environmental awareness of operators and poorly enforced or non-existent regulations exacerbate risks to wildlife. Ecological indicators like behavioural responses are useful to assess wildlife tourism, but...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | E-Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Routledge
2016
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/15329/7/A%20rapid%20assessment%20of%20wildlife%20tourism%20risk%20posed%20to%20cetaceans%20%28abstract%29.pdf http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/15329/ https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85006107037&doi=10.1080%2f09669582.2016.1257012&partnerID=40&md5=ccb3aca3c9646a6682b3bac7cc6ab4b8 |
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| Institution: | Universiti Malaysia Sarawak |
| Language: | English |
| Summary: | Dolphin-watching tourism is growing globally. In developing countries, the
typically low environmental awareness of operators and poorly enforced
or non-existent regulations exacerbate risks to wildlife. Ecological
indicators like behavioural responses are useful to assess wildlife tourism,
but obtaining such data is slow and expensive. We modified the Driver–
Pressure–State–Impact–Response (DPSIR) framework to rapidly assess the
risk of dolphin-watching tourism harming, displacing or causing local
extinction to dolphin populations, using human dimension data to
complement limited ecological data. We assessed industries at seven
dolphin-watching sites in six countries in Asia: Cambodia, India, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. All sites have reached or almost
reached financial saturation except Cambodia and Malaysia. We find high
risk to dolphins at the sites in India and Indonesia and intermediate risk at
the site in Cambodia. Pending more ecological data, the risk at Thailand,
the Philippines, and Malaysian sites might be low. Our analysis also
indicates site-specific conservation recommendations for Driver, Pressure
and Response. We suggest that the DPSIR framework is useful to assess
the risk of a wildlife watching industry, even when the impact is uncertain
due to insufficient ecological data. |
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