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Climate Change, Vulnerability and the Resilience of Tourism-driven Systems across scales

Duann Biggs - PhD Confirmation Seminar

Where: ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies Conference Room, JCU

When: Thursday 13 March 2008,  10.30am

Duan was born in Namibia and spent most of his life in South Africa. Prior to his PhD he completed an MSc by dissertation in Conservation Biology at the University of Cape Town. His MSc dissertation was on the institutions, economics and conservation benefits of community-based ecotourism in South Africa. He has a trans-disciplinary undergraduate training with majors in Economics, Development Studies and Environmental and Biodiversity Science. Duan relishes working at the interface of science and management and has developed, coordinated and consulted to projects for BirdLife International, Conservational International and WWF among others. He also leads specialist birding and eco-tours to destinations in Africa and the Asia-Pacific.

He started his PhD in July 2007 in the Centre's Program on Resilience and Socio-Ecological Systems and his supervisors at JCU are Terry Hughes, Joshua Cinner and Natalie Stoekl.

ABSTRACT:

The presentation will outline a strategy to understand the resilience and vulnerability of tourism-driven social-ecological systems across scales. The five capitals (social, financial, natural, physical and human) is the basis for analysis at national, regional and local scales in the Asia Pacific. The status and trends of the five capitals are measured at national and regional scale through the use of secondary data. Primary field surveys are conducted to collect information on the economic performance and status and trends of the five capitals at the tourism enterprise and household level at four contrasting sites in the Asia Pacific. The study focuses on tourism-driven systems with a coral reef focus. Through combining rigorous quantitative data at with contextually rich qualitative data at different scales; this study will aid out understanding of the multi-scale challenges climate change presents.