School of Geography - Theses
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ItemEcotourism in Third World countries( 1999)This thesis reviews the available literature on ecotourism, particularly in relation to case studies on ecotourism to natural areas in Third World countries. It develops a methodology by which to gauge the success or failure of ecotourism ventures to meet conservation and development objectives. These objectives include issues of ecological sustainability; improving the awareness of local people and tourists to the area's conservation issues; being self-financing; ensuring the local community is involved in and benefits from ecotourism; and ensuring visitor satisfaction. Of the case studies available, five sites are identified where the study is sufficiently in depth that the methodology can meaningfully be applied. These are the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve, Costa Rica; Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary, Belize; Tortuguero, Costa Rica; the Amazon, Brazil and Michi village, Solomon Islands. For all five sites, the degree to which they succeed or fail to meet each objective is analysed and rated, in order to identify common mechanisms by which they may succeed or fail in meeting the objective. A critique on the methodology applied and a general comment on ecotourism is also given.
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ItemEconomic regionalism, political strategies, and coast-interior disparities in post-Mao China( 1998)The widening development gap between coastal and interior regions of China has become a significant concern in the 1990s, and while the Chinese leadership is demonstrating increasing initiative toward reducing the gap, there is a clear shortage of analyses directed at how much the government is actually doing and whether these actions are appropriate. For the past 20 years, China's regional development strategy has emphasised increased efficiency, and as a result, the Central government has concentrated all efforts toward raising the level of development in China's littoral east. In the 1990s, the increasingly obvious divergence in levels of development between the coast and interior parts of China has caused the Central Government to make policy pronouncements and initiatives aimed at boosting interior development. Reducing the gap is important to the Central Government in terms of maintaining legitimacy, as increasingly influential interior interests express dissatisfaction with the coastal bias of the current regional strategy, and the well-being of the whole nation is dependent on continued economic growth nationwide. Whether the Central Government is making genuine efforts to reduce the gap through altering the development strategy from one that emphasises coastal development forms the central theme of this thesis. When Deng established power in 1978, he announced a new unbalanced regional development strategy that would allow the coast to `get rich first'. It was decided that China's scarce capital resources could be better utilised if concentrated in the most efficient and productive regions. The more advanced conditions in the coastal region of China meant capital could be most productively used there, and the increased productivity resulting from this spatial concentration of capital would eventually improve the economic conditions of the whole nation. This uneven strategy was justified by the Chinese leadership through the adoption of a trickle-down or diffusion theory of development, whereby economic growth would diffuse or trickle-down from areas of high growth to surrounding areas over time. In the early 1990s, the Central Government dropped trickle-down as the basis for devising the national regional strategy. As increasing disparities between coastal and interior China during the 1980s were becoming a significant concern, and the behaviour of local authorities seemed to prevent and oppose the trickle-down process, along with the political environment which called for a reassessment of the direction of regional reform, a new sector-based strategy was decided upon. Instead of attempting to alleviate the economic gap between the coast and interior by changing regional policy, and without deemphasising the importance of the coast, the Centre argued the sector-based strategy would increase the cooperation between coastal and interior enterprises, thus benefit both regions. Particularly in the mid-1990s, the continuing divergence of economic levels between the coast and interior has lead the Central Government to promise a turn of emphasis toward the interior, and the Central Government has devised several policies directed at improving the economic situation of the interior. Despite the Central Government focus on improving conditions in the interior, there has not been a convergence in economic development between the coast and interior. Although there has been an absolute increase in levels of development across all China since the beginning of Deng Xiaoping's reform program, in the 1990s it is generally acknowledged that the gap between the coastal and interior regions of China is widening; Jiang Zemin, China's top leader, stated "uneven regional development is obvious" in his speech before the 15`h National People's Congress in September 1997 (China Economic Window, 19/1/98). The continuing gap between coastal and interior China raises questions about the feasibility of the Central Government's regional strategy in the 1990s, and also raises questions whether the Central Government's focus on the interior is actually occurring or is little more than political rhetoric. There is a significant amount of (English) literature that deals with the inequality and causes of disparities between the coast and interior (EAAU, 1997; Linge and Forbes, 1990; Tsui, 1996; World Bank, 1997; Yang, 1990). Some authors extend this further by concentrating on the role of regional policy in the coast-interior gap (Cannon, 1990; Fan, 1995; Goodman, 1989; Ma and Li, 1994; Yang, 1991a; Yang, 1991b; Yang, 1997). A small number of authors look specifically at the theoretical basis behind regional policy formation (Fan 1995; Fan 1997; Hsu 1991). Except for the most recent publications, the majority of this literature is confined to analysing regional economic issues as they existed in the 1980s, and few publications have addressed the Central Government's regional policy formations relative to the idea of the trickle-down. Literature on the impact of the Central Government on spatial development through the creation of a variety of regions and the relationship to the trickle-down process in the 1990s similarly is limited. Throughout recent history, the distribution of development across China's space has been closely related to policy initiatives, and even in today's more marketised Chinese economy, policy remains important in the distribution of economic growth. This thesis seeks to identify the role that government policy has played in the uneven development between coastal and interior China throughout the reform era (since 1978), and how the Central Government is dealing with the issue in the 1990s through policy change. By comparing regional policy and regional issues in the 1980s and 1990s, it will be determined whether the Central Government is making appropriate policy changes in the 1990s to address the issue of uneven development. Particular attention will be payed to the role of the trickle-down process in China's development in the 1990s, for although the trickle-down basis for the regional strategy was discarded by policymakers in the 1990s, it appears the idea remains important in directing regional policy initiatives. This thesis will draw on government documents pertaining to regional policy, particularly information relating to the formulation of Five-Year Plans within which the government outlines policy plans and guidelines for the five years following. Most of these documents are translations of original government documents or are descriptions of central government initiatives in the literature. Government statistical publications were used for statistics in the 1990s; data for years prior drew from other sources. In addition, a number of business journals and books were used to conceptualise the current situation regarding government initiatives to attract foreign investment. A variety of newspapers, magazines, and internet magazines contributed to an understanding of current issues. All these documents were written or translated into English.