Climate change and the Great Barrier Reef: a vulnerability assessment

The Great Barrier Reef is renowned internationally for its ecological importance and the beauty of its seascapes and landscapes. These natural values also provide important ecosystem services, which underpin Australian $6.9 billion worth of economic activity and incalculable social values. In combination, the social-ecological system centred on the reef is extraordinary in its importance, and in its complexity. Understanding the vulnerability of such a large and intricate system to climate change is a particularly difficult challenge. A first step in meeting this challenge is to describe the general characteristics of the system and the environment in which they interact. Toward this end, this chapter introduces the Great Barrier Reef and the human systems that interact with it, providing a context for the detailed chapters that follow.This is Chapter 1 of Climate change and the Great Barrier Reef: a vulnerability assessment. The entire book can be found at http://hdl.handle.net/11017/13

Proceedings: International Tropical Marine Ecosystems Management Symposium (ITMEMS): November 1998

These Proceedings of the International Tropical Marine Ecosystems Management Symposium are somewhat unusual in form reflecting the nature of this Symposium as a gathering of managers, scientists and stakeholders who met together to consider the management of Coral Reefs and related Ecosystems. The first part is a fOl'mall'epol't of an International Gathering. The second part presents the reports and background papers that were provided by the participants and which formed the basis of discussion for various sessions in the Symposium. The third part contains the outputs of the cross·cutting working groups. These reflect the nature of the issues that the workshops were addressing and the variety of approaches brought by the range of participants with different perspectives and fields of expertise. Vve have not edited these reports for consistency of style and removal of overlap. We consider that the different perspectives and the ways in which they identify and express priorities are likely to be helpful to people seeking to design and implement support and oversight products and programs to improve the management of Coral Reef Ecosystems

\u27Take a deep breath’: how recreational SCUBA divers negotiate in-water constraints

A significant body of work now exists on what constrains people\u27s leisure. While early theorizations of constraints focused on what prevented individuals from participating in leisure, the literature has expanded to include discussions on how constraints may be negotiated, overcome or substituted. This article explores constraints negotiation in the context of adventurous leisure. This study considers how leisure constraints are negotiated in the in-situ experience of recreational scuba diving. In-depth interviews were conducted with 27 recreational divers. Analysis revealed three interrelated negotiation strategies used to deal with in-situ constraints, namely consolidate, co-operate, or cancel. These negotiation techniques were influenced by factors including divers\u27 histories, perceptions of the severity of the constraint and in-water experience. Findings support the recognition of in-situ constraints negotiation in adventurous leisure. Results highlight the need to reflect on how individuals negotiate constraints during leisure, particularly in difficult environments which can present unpredictable and dangerous risks

The role of ecotourism in conservation: panacea or Pandora's box?

Krüger O. The role of ecotourism in conservation: panacea or Pandora's box? Biodivers. Conserv. 2005;14(3):579-600