Ayako Toko

<p>Tourism sites under increasing pressures is expected to apply the concept of "Tourism Carrying Capacity (TCC)" for planning and management. In the context of natural protected areas, it is said that considering various managerial dimensions and tourists' experiential dimensions with resource dimensions to determine the extent of changes that are acceptable is more realistic, as ecosystem changes are dynamic and cannot be easily identified over short periods. This approach is known as the "Limits of Acceptable Change" (LAC)", but the LAC approach and its methodologies are still evolving. This study therefore aimed to develop a framework for measuring the experiential dimension of the LAC approach, focusing on the Rock Islands Southern Lagoon (RISL) in Palau. We used six indicators defined through the preliminary research, and did experimental surveys with the structured questionnaire, the line census and the noise investigation for collecting both subjective and objective data. Results indicated that tourists' experiential satisfaction was remarkably high which could outweigh concerns about congestion.</p><p>On the other hand, the analysis of the relation among indicators illustrated a candidate threshold of the number of visitors at a time, although we cannot be decisive with only one-time research. From the perspective of the evaluation of the methods, we found that subjective data was not effective in some cases as they could be too affected by personal background to reproduce an actual condition at the site. Further research including surveys on the resource dimension are needed for obtaining more reliable results for developing the LAC approach.</p>

<p>Argments on the best scheme of conservation and natural resource management (NRM) have been developed for more than half a century. Each period had its own challenges,which were recognized later, and decentralized approaches incorporating the concerns of local communities gained attention since the eighties as a consequence of past failures. However,community-based approaches also have challenges, especially lacking of financial and human resources in local communities. On the other hand, ecotourism emerged in the early eighties as an effective tool to provide financial resources for conservation and for local communities as well as to improve environmental awareness of local people. Summarizing the theories of these two approaches, community-based ecotourism (CBET) is supposed to be a good tool for NRM by contributing toward meeting the challenge of community-based approaches. Therefore, in order to examine the hypothesis, this study focuses on CBET in Cambodia where 73% of people still live in rural areas and are directly dependent on natural resources. The result from a model case indicates that CBET has a potential for support sustainable NRM; on the other hand, it is revealed that most of CBET sites in Cambodia are poorly assessed and still under development. Further research on CBET is urgently needed in Cambodia for the nation's sustainable NRM.</p>

Today, in Japan, the economical value of forest is degraded because of its lack of benefit ; thus it is required to focus on multifunctionality of forest and to rebuild its values so that as many as people can recognize the importance of forest management. The government is promoting green volunteer activities in order to broaden the knowledge of forest management. However, there is not a specific policy yet how to sustain these voluntary activities. Applying the social capital (SC) concept, this study aims to investigate the potential value of the voluntary green activities as well as the underlying aspect which is related to its sustainability. SC, the concept which has gained relevance since the nineties in many different spheres, is expected to create and promote the mutually beneficial collective action. This study develops the SC verification matrix which helps to classify and to verify six type of SC. The matrix applied to analyze a case study of a NPO which regularly conduct the green activities in the green conservation area in Hachioji, Tokyo. As a result, it is revealed that the green volunteer activity contributed to SC creation and stock, which has positive effects on members motivation as well as on knowledge sharing.

Today, the involvement of local communities becomes increasingly important for natural resource management. This study focuses on 'community-based forest management (CBFM)' and outlines a case from Tanzania in order to identify underlying causes and influencing factors. Study results showed an existing gap between the government's picture of CBFM Although acted in good faith, community-based approaches can have unforeseen reverse effects. To be effective, forest policy must include practical guidelines and financial support and integrate local knowledge and experience. Both interviews and questionnaires have shown the potential willing of people to be more involved in forest management. These unused human recourses could be mobilised by means of awareness raising campaigns, practical guidelines, and a better distribution of information.