Sustainable Tourism Systems Lecture Series

Title of Presentation: A Geographer’s Approach to Aboriginal Tourism

Date, Time and Venue: March 28, 2008     |     2:00-3:00 pm     |     Francis Hall      |     Rm. 202

Speaker: Dr. Geoffrey Wall - Department of Geography, Faculty of Environmental Studies, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 5X4, Canada, Email: gwall@fes.uwaterloo.ca.

Abstract: The presentation will begin with a short statement on geographic approaches to understanding tourism. It will then move to a brief discussion of relationships between aboriginal people and tourism to provide a context for two case studies from Taiwan. The first study uses weaving as a point of entry to understand aspects of colonialism, tourism, gender and identity in an Atayal community in Wulai, north Taiwan. The second critiques the concepts of sustainable development and sustainable tourism and advocates the utility of a sustainable livelihoods approach, illustrating the latter through studies undertaken in selected Tsou communities in central Taiwan. While focused on aboriginal communities in Taiwan, it will be suggested that the approaches that are presented are of much wider applicability in tourism research.

Speaker Biography: Dr. Wall is a Professor of Geography and for 11 years was Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research at the University of Waterloo, Canada. Educated at Leeds University (B.A., 1966), Cambridge University (Cert. Ed., 1967), University of Toronto (M.A., 1968), and Hull University (Ph.D., 1970), he taught at Sheffield University and the University of Kentucky before moving to Waterloo in 1974. Author of several books on tourism impacts, he has written numerous papers on tourism and recreation in academic journals and has edited a number of volumes on the implications of global climate change. Recent research projects include studies of the impacts of tourism on host communities, assessment of the implications of the greenhouse effect for tourism and recreation, collaborative tourism strategies for Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, and the involvement of indigenous people in tourism (especially in Hainan, Guizhou, Inner Mongolia and Taiwan).

................................................................

Title of Presentation: Paying NOT to See Wolves: Environmental Education in Ecotourism in the Yellowstone Greater Ecosystem

Date, Time and Venue:   April 4, 2008     |     2:00-3:00 pm     |     Francis Hall      |     Rm. 202

Speaker: Dr. Constanza Ocampo-Raeder - Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Maine

Abstract: This presentation will explore the success and challenges of an ecotourism project that strives to carry-out wolf conservation in a culturally diverse landscape of the American West. The success of the grey wolf reintroduction into Yellowstone National Park has added significantly to the area’s ecotourism potential. However, wolf viewing is no longer exclusively taking place within park boundaries. Packs often migrate into neighboring lands where cattle ranching activities take place and where wolves are considered a direct threat to this traditional ranching way of life. In addition, cattle ranchers also share the landscape with wealthy conservation-aimed ranch owners that favor wildlife conservation versus cattle ranching. Thus wildlife conservation projects must design strategies that consider the different relationships and perspectives of the area’s stakeholders. Such is the case of Papoose Creek Lodge, an ecotourism lodge in the Madison Valley of Montana. The lodge has developed an environmental program that aims at educating guests about nature, ecotourism, and the socio-cultural implication of conservation. The result is that guests are not allowed to view wolves, but instead are exposed and participate with innovative wolf management techniques such as “sleeping with cattle” programs that showcase wolf-friendly cattle ranching. Many of these techniques stem from ethnographic insights from societies around the world where people and predators also interact frequently. Surprisingly guests emerge from their trip literally “proud” of not seeing wolves. However, this approach is often in conflict with marketing experts hired to promote the lodge whom believe enterprises should cater to client desires and neighboring cattle ranchers whom are still opposed to any kind of wolf conservation.

Speaker Biography: As an ecological anthropologist Dr. Ocampo-Raeder has traveled to tropical regions around the world documenting the impacts of traditional resource management activities on rainforest dynamics. She was a Watson Fellow at Grinnell College, conducting undergraduate research in Tahiti, Belize, Brazil, and Kenya. She earned her PhD in Anthropology at Stanford University and was a Graduate and Research Fellow of the National Science Foundation. Her research focuses on the ecological basis behind cultural belief systems. As an assistant professor at the University of Maine, she teaches and studies ecological anthropology, environmental justice, indigenous rights, and market-based conservation in the Amazon, American West, New England, and Central America.