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25 - Time to rethink

Fostering the nascent ‘sustainability paradigm’

from Part IV - Sustainable management: insights and issues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2014

By
James Higham ,
Lars Bejder  and
Rob Williams
Edited by
James Higham ,
Lars Bejder  and
Rob Williams
James Higham
Affiliation:
University of Otago, New Zealand
Lars Bejder
Affiliation:
Murdoch University, Western Australia
Rob Williams
Affiliation:
University of St Andrews, Scotland
James Higham
Affiliation:
University of Otago, New Zealand
Lars Bejder
Affiliation:
Murdoch University, Western Australia
Rob Williams
Affiliation:
University of St Andrews, Scotland
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Summary

This book addresses human interactions with cetaceans in the wild, at the heart of which lies the considerable challenge of sustainable management. The urgency of this subject arises from spectacular growth in demand and widespread evidence of unsustainable management of tourist interactions with cetaceans. The foregoing chapters serve to highlight the complex interplay of the macro- (global), meso- (national/regional) and micro-level (local/site-specific) policy, planning and management settings. The dynamic nature of these contexts combined with the urgent need for integrated and adaptive management approaches are most evident (Higham et al., 2009). Given the current failing of the long-term sustainable management of many whale-watching activities, a new whale-watching paradigm is clearly required (Lusseau et al., 2013). Any such paradigm must be informed by change at three spatial scales of analysis (Higham et al., 2009.

While attending to the management of tourist interactions with cetaceans, it is necessary to understand the policy, planning and management inputs which take place at the macro- (global), meso- (national) and micro (local–regional) levels at specific sites in different parts of the world (Figure 25.1). The macro-level context is characterized by growing concerns for declining levels of global biodiversity and the increasing instability of complex ecosystems (Tilman, 1999; Worm et al., 2009). In the special case of the large whales, we are not talking about recent human activities degrading an otherwise pristine system.

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Type
Chapter
Information
Whale-watching
Sustainable Tourism and Ecological Management
 , pp. 365 - 378
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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  • Time to rethink
  • Edited by James Higham, University of Otago, New Zealand, Lars Bejder, Murdoch University, Western Australia, Rob Williams, University of St Andrews, Scotland
  • Book: Whale-watching
  • Online publication: 05 April 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139018166.029
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  • Time to rethink
  • Edited by James Higham, University of Otago, New Zealand, Lars Bejder, Murdoch University, Western Australia, Rob Williams, University of St Andrews, Scotland
  • Book: Whale-watching
  • Online publication: 05 April 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139018166.029
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

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  • Time to rethink
  • Edited by James Higham, University of Otago, New Zealand, Lars Bejder, Murdoch University, Western Australia, Rob Williams, University of St Andrews, Scotland
  • Book: Whale-watching
  • Online publication: 05 April 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139018166.029
Available formats
×