Bias in American Ornithologists' Union Bird Names

Ornithology has developed bodies to make collective decisions on the taxonomy, scientific names, and common names of birds. This tradition within ornithology assists with communication and reduces confusion. For North and Central America, a committee of the American Ornithologists' Union standardizes the taxonomy and nomenclature of all the birds that naturally occur within that area. This paper makes the point that this activity has been dominated by members from the United States, with insufficient attention paid to the appropriate use of the term "American" or to the concerns of citizens of countries other than the USA. As a result, the term "American" is used inappropriately as a synonym for North American in a geographic distribution sense. In addition, the terms "Canadian" and "Mexican" are used very sparingly or not at all in the English common name for species that occur in those countries. Suggestions are made with regards to the membership of the nomenclature committee and for remedying this problem with English common names

¿Existe un conflicto entre la globalización del turismo y los recursos naturales?

[EN] Globalization and Tourism are two of the most analyzed economic phenomenon of the last decades. Their great significance and important impacts on economy may be the main reasons for this increasing interest. Remarkable growth in Tourism has similar causes to Globalization, so we can talk about Tourism Globalization. In this context, one of the most used arguments by Globalization critics is their relevant impacts on the environment. Then, it becomes necessary to analyze the potential conflict between tourist development and natural resources conservation. Tourism is dependent upon natural resources in the way that environmental degradation damages destination image and their competitiveness. In this way, only through the decrease of the environmental problems and overexploitation of natural resources it is possible to guarantee a sustainable tourism. Having this objective in mind, optimal destination management has an extensive range of policy instruments, as «command and control» mechanisms or «incentive based» tools applied by public administrations and different private initiatives adopted by the industry.[ES] La globalización, así como el turismo internacional, son dos de los fenómenos económicos más analizados en los últimos años, tanto por su creciente importancia como por sus visibles efectos sobre la economía. La notable expansión del turismo tiene como origen, en gran parte, las mismas causas que explican la globalización económica, de ahí que, a menudo, se hable de «globalización turística». Uno de los argumentos más utilizados por los detractores de la globalización es su elevado impacto en términos ambientales. En este sentido, resulta obligado reflexionar sobre la existencia de un potencial conflicto entre el, cada vez mayor, desarrollo turístico y la conservación de los recursos naturales. Una cuestión ésta que adquiere especial importancia en el caso de la industria turística, dado que la calidad ambiental no es sólo un fin en si mismo sino una condición necesaria para su viabilidad económica. De esta forma, la reducción de los problemas de degradación y sobreutilización a los que se ven sometidos los recursos naturales en los destinos resulta imprescindible para garantizar la supervivencia de una industria cada vez más globalizada. La gestión y planificación de los recursos naturales se convierte, así, en un elemento estratégico de la política turística. Con todo, la influencia del turismo sobre el medio ambiente depende no sólo de la existencia de impactos ambientales sino también de los esfuerzos públicos y privados dedicados a minimizarlos.Riera Font, A.; Capó Parrilla, J.; Palmer Tous, T. (2006). Is there any conflict between tourism globalization and natural resources?. Economía Agraria y Recursos Naturales - Agricultural and Resource Economics. 6(12):169-186. doi:10.7201/earn.2006.12.08SWORD16918661

An exploration of hiking risk perception : dimensions and antecedent factors

Hiking is a form of green tourism which deserves promotion and popularization, especially in present day China. However, the risks inherent in hiking could have a negative impact on the development of hiking tourism. It is important to better understand how people perceive the risks of hiking and what type of experience attributes they prefer. However, no studies have investigated the nature of risk perception from the perspective of hikers. This study explores the dimensions of the perceived risk of hiking and investigates the associated factors of hiking risk perception as well as hiking preference. A questionnaire with 18 items was used to capture people’s perception of hiking risks, and two groups of samples were surveyed. Generally, this study identified two dimensions of perceived risk towards hiking based on a sample of hikers, i.e., physical risk and psychological risk. Demographic variables such as gender, upbringing background, and hiking frequency were shown to predict hiking risk perception while gender and hiking frequency predicted route preference. The personality trait of sensation seeking appeared to be a significant predictor of hiking preference. These findings lend themselves to market segmentation and marketing strategies on hiking tourism

A Global Perspective on Trends in Nature-Based Tourism

Falling attendance at United States and Japanese national parks has led to claims of a pervasive shift away from nature-based recreation. A global analysis, however, now suggests that while visit rates are declining slightly in some richer countries, elsewhere nature tourism is booming

Assessment of the Tourism’s Potential as a Sustainable Development Instrument in Terms of Annual Stability: Application to Spanish Rural Destinations in Process of Consolidation

Tourism has established itself as an instrument that supports the sustainable development of rural destinations and has both, negative and positive effects. The annual instability of the flow of visitors, known as tourist seasonality, contributes to the intensification of some of these negative effects. In this work, we perform an analysis on the evolution of the seasonality intensity during the process of consolidation of the Spanish rural destinations, designed to improve the knowledge about the tourist activity’s capacity to generate a sustainable development alternative steady throughout the year. To guarantee an accurate measurement, we propose the use of a synthetic indicator as a methodological innovation, such as the Method of Distance Pena DP2, that brings together the supply and demand variables. We can observe that tourist seasonality is restrained in smaller destinations that experience a growth in terms of tourists’ arrivals, so it is associated with the early stages of the consolidation process. However, the destinations with a lower seasonality level do not match with those that welcome a larger number of visitors. Those destinations with the potential to obtain more benefits because of their level of consolidation do not have the necessary annual stability to provide employment and income in a steady way throughout the year.The authors would like to thank the financial support provided by the Government of Spain (ECO2013-44879-R) and the Regional Government of Andalucía (SEJ-393)

Basaltic Dyke with Specific Volcanogenic Structures and its geomorphic evolution: Unique Geoheritage of the Faroe Islands (North Atlantic Ocean)

Volcanic landforms resulting from Cenozoic volcanism represent the most peculiar features of global geodiversity and provide eminent narratives for geoeducation. Among them, however, relict volcanic forms and site-specific landforms in remote areas have received less attention. In this paper, we provide the first description of unique volcanogenic features (hereinafter referred to as pseudo-hieroglyphs) developed on a summit rock wall at the Sandfelli ridge near the village of Gjógv in the N Eysturoy Island (Faroe Islands). The geomorphic evolution of the ridge and rock wall during the Quaternary is described and detailed petrographic analyses of the volcanogenic features are provided. Based on observed petrographical features, we interpret the pseudo-hieroglyphs to probably represent unique examples of chaotic horizontal columnar jointing. Following the geomorphological and petrographic examination of the study site, we analyse current Faroese legislation aiming at nature conservation and use this case to discuss broader implications of geoheritage conservation and geotourism in distant regions.Vulkanická krajina vzniklá kenozoickým vulkanismem představuje nejpodivnější rysy globální geodiversity a poskytuje vynikající příběhy pro geovzdělávání. Méně pozornosti se však dostává reliktním vulkanickým formám a lokálním tvarům reliéfu v odlehlých oblastech. V tomto článku přinášíme první popis unikátních vulkanogenních tvarů (dále jen "pseudo-hieroglyfy"), které se vyvíjely na skalní stěně vrcholu na hřbetě Sandfelli u vesnice Gjógv v severní části ostrova Eysturoy (Faerské ostrovy). Je popsán geomorfologický vývoj hřbetu a skalní stěny během kvartéru a jsou uvedeny podrobné petrografické analýzy vulkanogenních vlastností. Na základě pozorovaných petrografických rysů interpretujeme pseudo-hieroglyfy, které pravděpodobně představují jedinečné příklady chaotické horizontální sloupcovité odlučnosti. Po geomorfologickém a petrografickém studiu zájmové lokality analyzujeme současnou faerskou legislativu zaměřenou na ochranu přírody a užíváme tohoto příkladu k diskusi širších důsledků zachování a geoturistiky geografického dědictví ve vzdálených regionech