21世紀航海図;歴史は何も教えてくれない。ただ学ばない者を罰するだけ。

個人の時代だからこそ、個人を活かす「組織」が栄え、個人を伸ばす「組織」が潤う。人を活かす「組織」の時代。

恐怖の存在 (State of Fear); Michael Crichton

2006年12月30日 09時44分38秒 | Weblog
 面白かった。
作者がジェラシックパーク等と同じと言う事で、興味を持って手を出してみた。やっぱり、最初の方の展開はゆっくりしていて、少し飽きそうになたけれど、その後で話が一気に加速し始めて、、、もう読むのを止められない。世界中を飛び回りながら、繰り広げられるアクションが最高!!! 早く映画化されないかな? 舞台は「世界」と言っても、CGとセットがあれば、全シーンがハリウッドの中だけで撮影できそうだし。
 話の展開も面白いけれど、さらに読みながらちょっとした「環境問題まめ知識」が手に入るのが最高。歴史小説で言う所の「司馬遼太郎・作品」みたいな感じ。機会があれば、このマメ知識を生かして環境関係の話を得意分野に持って行けそう。
 話の設定上、カトリック教会の正当性に疑問を投げかけた「ダビンチ・コード」の映画化に際しては、頼まれもしないのに教会が批判活動を通じて広告塔になっていた。(映画自体は大したこと無かったけれど。短い放映時間に対して多くの出来事が詰め込まれすぎていて、ちょっとついて行けないって感じ。)「恐怖の存在」の中では、地球温暖化が設定上槍玉に挙げられている。となると、活動的な環境保護団体が批判活動を通じて広告塔の役目を果たしてくれるかな??? 

ウラン価格高騰

2006年12月26日 10時17分20秒 | Weblog
 水力発電は何故に人気がないんだろうね。水の安定供給の点でも発電の点でも環境への悪影響に比べて、利点の方が大きい気がするけどね。
 それはそうと、原油価格の高騰・地球温暖化への関心の高まりを受けて、原子力発電に関心が移ったら、ウランの取引価格が上がってきてしまった。石炭の液化技術にも注目が集まってきているし、もうしばらくはオーストラリア・ドルは下がりそうにないね。エネルギー戦略の点では、ウランの供給地が限られている中で、どうやって安定確保して行くかが大きな問題点だね。エネルギー自給率が1%を切っている日本にとっては、いくらウラン価格が上がっても原子力発電は諦められない。さっさと、核融合発電が実用化されてしまえば良いのに。イランは原子力発電所を確保した所で、エネルギー源安定化は達成できそうにないかね。
 原子力発電所の建設は進んで来ている。原発建設業者の再編の進んだ。ウランの供給源の拡大は進まないね~。どうも資源富国は紛争に巻き込まれやすい傾向にあるらしい。アフリカでも中東でも南米でも北朝鮮でも、政情不安定が大きな問題になっている。そんな所で、一企業が単独で資源の確保の為に動く事は不可能なので、いろんな援助も合わせて、政情安定化と権益の確保が同時並行で行えたら良いね。

イラク政策・どうせお金をかけるなら、、

2006年12月26日 07時58分50秒 | Weblog
 お金さえあれば大体どんな事でも出来るもんだ。(かと言って、小額じゃどうにもならない事が多いが)イラク戦争では、アメリカだけで40兆円近く使っている。日本やイギリス等多国籍部隊の出費、国連からの支援も含めれば、相当な額になっているはずだ。にもかかわらず、イラク情勢には改善の兆しが見られない。まさか使っているお金が足りないと言う事はないだろうから、きっと使い方が悪いのだろう。

 まず、米軍がいた所で治安が安定化しないような所からは撤退するべきだ。もし’住民を守る必要がある’と言うのなら、安全な地域にもう1つ街を作ってしまって、そっちに住民を移動させれば良い。紛争開始後、多くの人が失業したと言われているぐらいだから、「街の建設」による仕事の創出はきっと喜ばれるに違いない。短期的には建設関連の仕事の増加が見込め、長期的には、警察官、救急消防員、教師等を含む「公務職員」が必要になってくるはずだ。当然、”治安が安定した街”を人工的に創りだす事が出来れば、市場、ショッピングモール、娯楽施設も誕生するし、民間企業が事務所を構える例も増えてくるはずだ。多国籍企業のイラク進出も容易になるかもしれない。 また、歴史の無い街を人工的に創り上げる事で、根深く残る民族間慣習の対立も(その街の中では)抑える事が出来るかもしれない。古い慣習を脱ぎ捨てる過程で、新住民達が新しい政治慣習として民主主義を採用してくれるかもしれない。
 紛争地帯から兵士を撤退させる事で、米軍の犠牲者数を減らす事が出来るだろうし、テロリスト予備軍である失業者を吸収できれば、治安の安定化ももっと容易になるはずだ。どこの国にも、インフラが整った地域とそうでない地域がある。バクダッドの再建を見捨てて、新首都の建設に目を向けても良いのではないか。イラクの南部地域を建設場所として選べば、この都市そのものが油田を守る為の防波堤;軍隊の活動拠点として機能し、石油輸出から得られる資金が得られるようになるかもしれない。もしテロリストが攻撃の視点を新都市に移してくるのなら、(それはそれで)他の地域が安定化する分、いい話だ。

 さらには、イラク北部にダムを建設して、国内河川・水の供給を完全に制御する。これは上下水道の整備にも役立つ。人は水なしには生きられない。都市ごとへの水の供給を調整すれば、人の移動を簡単に制御でき、支配権を確立できる。これは北部での紛争を激化させるかもしれないが、安定しているタミル人地域を基盤とし、北部にも避難してきた住民用の都市を主導的に整備する事で対抗できる。テロリストは街に入り込めなければ、砂漠を戦場にせざるを得ない。その遮蔽物の無い砂漠での戦闘こそが、米軍の最も得意とする所である。。。。。(無線飛行機プレデターで爆撃すれば良いだけだし)

 わざわざ、敵が得意とする戦場に入り込んで行く必要は無い。相手を引っ張りだしてこれば良いのだ。

イランの甘え

2006年12月26日 06時54分52秒 | Weblog
 安全保障理事会の決議を無視する形になっているイラン政府はいったい何に甘えているのだろう。核攻撃でテヘランが消滅させられない可能性はどこにもない。安保理の場でこそロシアも中国も、アメリカの圧力からイランをかばうような形とっているが、実際にテヘランが消滅させられた時に、代理報復が出来るほどの軍事力はどちらも持ち合わせていない。国益を考えれば、アメリカへの代理報復等にてを出すはずもない。
 だからこそ、「自力報復」の力を手に入れる為に核開発をイランは進めているのかもしれない。しかし、無尽蔵の核兵器を持つアメリカへの対抗力を手に入れるまでにはまだ数十年はかかる。それまで、どうやって生き残って行くつもりなのだろう?
 「国際世論」「人道的配慮」や「倫理観」がテヘランへの攻撃を思いとどませる、と考えている人もいるかもしれない。しかし、それらは米国のイラク侵略を止められなかった。イラク戦争・ベトナム戦争から分かる事は、米軍の破壊力の凄まじさだ。確かに、両地域で米軍は「占領政策・統治」に失敗している。しかし、数万人の米軍兵士の犠牲に比べ、ベトナムでは1千万人近い現地住民が死亡した。イラクでは、米軍の犠牲者数は3千人に達しようといているが、イラク住民の死亡者数は既に100万人を超えているとも言われている。アメリカでは政治家は無能だが、米軍兵士は優秀だと言う事だと思う。とりあえず、米軍にとって、イランを占領する事は不可能に近いが、イランを完全な砂漠だけの国にしてしまうだけなら、簡単だと言う事だ。米軍の破壊力は凄まじい。
 産油設備の老朽化が進み原油価格が高止まりを続けている中、エネルギーを輸入せずに自立し続ける事の重要性は理解できる。そして、その為に原子力発電所が必要な事も。しかしイランには他にとれる選択肢があるはずだ。(日本企業に原発の建設を発注するとか)。。何をするにせよ、超大国であるアメリカに対立する選択は間違っている。特に、米国内犯罪発生率が高いうちは。彼らにとって、他人を従わせる為に力を使うことは当然の選択肢だ。
 イランの指導者の何人かは海外に留学し、先進国にある「自由の理想」の素晴らしさを学んだはずだ。しかし彼らは、その「自由」が適応されている範囲を学んではこなかったのかもしれない。

食糧完全自給を達成するには

2006年12月23日 13時37分03秒 | Weblog
食糧完全自給を達成するには、まず太陽電池・風力発電・波力発電技術の発展が必要不可欠だ。化石燃料・原子力燃料の輸入を止め、エネルギーの自給が達成できなければ、「食糧の自給」等と言う夢は見る事はできないが、今の日本の科学技術ではまだ効率的に発電するはできない。まぁ、開発に少なくとも後50年以上はかかるだろうが、非効率的な技術を使うほど無駄な事もない。

 波力発電機の効率を上げ海に浮かべ日本を囲んでしまえばよい。そしてその上に、風力発電の風車も備え付ければ良い。狭い日本で地面の上に風車を建てるのは土地の無駄だ。さらに、太陽電池を全ての建物の上/海岸線に備え付ける。煙害に遭う土地はどうせ農業には利用できない。できれば、建物の光熱利用量を減らす為に全ての物は地下に移動するべきだ。土の中ならば空気中に比べ気温の変化が少ないため快適に過ごせる上に、都市部の地表を全て太陽発電所として利用できる。
 地球温暖化が進んでいるのはいい兆候だ。地球のの平均気温はあと10度ほど上がるべきだろう。何と言っても、日本の食の大部分を支えているのは、日本海側の米所と北海道だから、冬場は雪に閉ざされてしまって、現在「二毛・二期作」等と言う夢を見る事はできない。しかし、後10度ほど気温が上がってくれればそれも可能になる。

 まぁ、日本国内で十分なエネルギーを生産できるようになれば、100階建て以上のビルを幾つも建てて、人口太陽を使い、水を循環させ、その中で農業を行えば良い。そうすれば、同じ広さの土地で何倍もの収穫を期待できるし、「異常気象」で生産が不安定化する事もなければ、害虫に収穫を台無しにされる事もない。
 要は、日本で食糧の完全自給を達成するのは、月で食糧の完全自給を達成するのと同じぐらい難しい。(それでも、私はきっとできると信じている)

食糧完全自給=不可能

2006年12月22日 18時02分39秒 | Weblog
「食量の完全自給」は完全な夢物語だ。絶対に達成できない。(技術的に少なくとも先100年は)内閣府による世論調査の結果によると、国民のほとんどは食糧の自給を求めているみたいだが、これは国内農業団体によるプロバガンダに世論が流された結果であり、日本の農業の正しい現状についての情報を国民に提供してこなかった農林水産省は責任を取るべきだ。
 少なくとも、化石燃料・原子力燃料の両点で、99%以上を輸入に頼っている以上、日本人は貿易を制限してまで、農業を守るようなことはするべきではない。今の人口で、海外からの燃料の輸入が止まってしまえば、日本人は石器時代以前の生活レベルで生きて行くことになる。自殺するようなモノで、意味がない。また、牛肉・オレンジの例で分かる通り、貿易が自由化されれば、自給率は下がる。(日本人の大多数が食糧の自給を望んでいると、本当に信じるのならば、今すぐ農産物の輸入を全て自由化するべきだ。きっと食糧輸入は増えないだろう。しかも、日本製の工業製品の自由輸出協定を拡大させることができる。これによる貿易・黒字の拡大が、日本に低いエネルギー自給率を支えられる)
 とりあえず、日本が戦略無しに食糧自給率を維持できる、食糧自給を諦める、いずれにしても、日本には政府機関としての「農林水産省」は必要なくなってきている。今直ぐにでも、廃止・民営化されるべきだ。
 また、日本の発展した農業技術はもっと海外に移転されるべきだ。競争力・自給率の維持を目的に国内に止め於かれるべきではない。少なくとも世界での食糧不足を減少させることができるはずだ。日本人も海外産の安い食糧を手にできる。「適地適作」世界で最も適した場所で最も適した食物を生産することができれば、気候変動が問題になっている今、環境への負担も減らせる。
 ここでもう一度だけ繰り返させてもらう。「エネルギーの自給率」が1%を切っている日本で、国際情勢の不安定化を理由に「食糧自給率を上げたい」と思っているのは大きな欺瞞だ。日本人が本当に今の「国際情勢」に不安を持っているのならば、すぐにでも「農林水産省」を廃止して、その予算を「外務省」・「経済産業省」もしくは何か「新技術の開発」に回すべきだ。最近、外務省の評判が悪いらしいが、どうせどこも大した仕事はしていない。

ecotourism investment 5

2006年12月22日 06時25分40秒 | Weblog
6.0 Conclusions: Two ecotourism destinations

6.1 Ecotourism in Otago, New Zealand: local people and democratic city council support socio-cultural sustainability for the tourism industry. Those also benefit ecotourism. If they can deal with the growth of population well, there will not be any political problems in the future either. Moreover, A local ecotourism businesses have advantages that they can cooperate each other for sustainability of the destination. Locally operated ecotourism coordinators increase economical sustainability and some types of independent qualification systems ensure environmental sustainability of the ecotourism destination. On the other hand, flexibility of currency trading creates a risk of investing in New Zealand. Strong NZ$ will reduce a number of tourists in the country and have negative effects on whole tourism destinations.

6.2 Ecotourism in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: A social division cased by the apartheid era still remains there. Many local people did not have educations, and they do not have advanced skills and works. The lack of educations increases crime rates and epidemics infection rates at the destination, and keeps society unsustainable. This lack of educations also occurs difficulties of participating ecotourism industries for local people. Then, ecotourism industries have to face unexpected conflicts to the local community. Particularly transformations of the government and laws of the property right after the apartheid era make actual ownerships of lands unclear. This is interrupting conservation works at private owned areas. Because of a separation between people and poor understanding of each other, ecotourism has to manage sustainability without support from the local community there.


7.0 Recommendations
Ecotourism in Otago, New Zealand is socio-culturally, economically and environmentally more sustainable, compared to ecotourism in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, through this report. However, Fuku managing consultant recommends investing in KwaZulu-Natal.
As ecotourism destination, Otago is self-completed. They have the effective city council to satisfy the one industry concept of tourism, many locally managed attractions that focus on sustainability, and independent assessors to ensure quality of the tourism. They tend to limit number of tourists for minimizing impacts and sustainability, so people do not expect a further boom of the tourism. It is a developed tourism destination and investors cannot fund there without tourism expansion and destruction of the environment.
On the other hand, KwaZulu-Natal people cannot manage tourism alone, and they need supports from outside. Constructions of infrastructures for tourism industry including job training centers or schools will improve a quality of tourism, sustainability and standard of living. Those also provide jobs for non-skilled workers and a chance to improve working skills. This development will damage environment but people can sustain their lives in a long term. It is better than that people stay in poverty and keep damaging environment just to survive. Investments for ecotourism business in KwaZulu-Natal will improve local situation dramatically.

ecotourism investment 4

2006年12月22日 06時24分41秒 | Weblog
5.3 Environmental Sustainability

5.3.1 In Otago, New Zealand, people have certifications and concessions systems. For instance, people need concessions of the Department of Conservation (DOC) for uses of water and land, every constructions and commercial activities that may affect environment. (DOC, 2006). Inbound Tour Operators Council of New Zealand assesses qualities of tourism industries such as accommodations, transportations and other activities, and provides some kinds of Qualmarks depending on their classes of tourism operations. Green Globe 21 is an international certification system for tourism and destinations. It requires minimizing impacts of the industries. Monarch Wildlife Cruises has a marine mammal viewing permit of DOC for cruise tours, Qualmark endorsed and membership of Green Globe 21. Catlins Wildlife Trackers Ecotours and Walks has DOC concessionaire and marine mammal viewing permit and professional qualifications. Nature Guides Otago has DOC concessionaire, regional council consent and professional qualifications. In addition, Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony has regional council consent and Qualmark endorsed. (Ecotour New Zealand, 2006). Independent organizations are assessing tourism businesses for qualifications that encourage tourism operators to improve their qualities, and these qualifications benefit tourism destinations, sustaining the environment.

5.3.2 In KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, Natal Parks Board is one of official conservation agencies. They maintain 28 percent of coastline as maritime reserves. They have chosen ecotourism as a strategy for sustainable development and conservation, and they established a reconstruction and development programme, and focused on environmental education programme. However, they mainly relied on funding by the government, and their first priority is economical development. They employed over three thousands staff and manage campsites where more than ten thousands people can stay over in year 2000. On public protected areas, the government owns majority part of the areas, and it is easy to manage environment. Nevertheless, ownerships of the lands, surrounding the public protected areas, are not clear and no one can form a buffer zone. Moreover, ecotourism does not benefit local community well, so local people are not interested in conservation activities there. People need some resolutions to maintain environmental sustainability.

ecotourism investment 3

2006年12月22日 06時23分31秒 | Weblog
5.2 Economical Sustainability

5.2.1 In New Zealand, tourism businesses are mainly managed by domestic operators, so the multiplier is more than two. They tend to stay and spend money locally. The tourism industry benefits local community and sustain the destination financially.
On the other hand, international tourists to New Zealand have to pay higher costs than before. According to the National Bank of New Zealand (2006), NZ$ 1 = US$ 0.67 on November 5th, 2006. The exchange rate was about NZ$ 1 = US$ 0.39 at October 2000. These days, travels to New Zealand require almost twice higher budgets for international travelers than in year 2000. It will cause a decrease of the number of international tourists to New Zealand including ecotourists. In addition, this strong NZ$ encourages New Zealand residents to travel overseas, and reduce whole numbers of tourists in New Zealand. Local ecotourism destinations face a difficult competition against the destination in Fiji, Brazil or Kenya. Also, this strong NZ$ increase a risk of losses through a currency trading for foreign investors. These are some negative aspects of economical sustainability.

5.2.2 In the case of South Africa, because charitable donations improve standard of living for the communities, there is no necessity for local people to conserve a nature or participate in ecotourism. That means there is no clear evidence whether the ecotourism is economically sustainable or not and whether the ecotourism sustain local economy or not. Then, because many local people did not have chances of educations, ecotourism operators easily face problems of employing skilled workers locally. They have to invite skilled workers from outside or take time to train people locally.
Furthermore, South African government does not have enough foreign reserves. They have more than US$ 7 billion international trade deficits, and a value of S.A. Rand has dropped about ten percent since last year. There are also risks of foreign currency trading. It is not easy to sustain their economical development.

ecotourism investment 2

2006年12月22日 06時22分08秒 | Weblog
5.1 Socio-Cultural Sustainability

5.1.1 In Otago, New Zealand, a democratic city council maintaining socio-cultural sustainability. The city has a peaceful history of more than 150 years, and about 140 thousand people are living there. The city council also supports local tourism industry, following the one industry concept. Their websites provide information of local destinations to the world, and i-SITE Dunedin Visitor Centre offers their visitors and residents convenient information and booking systems domestically. Temporally, Otago region does not have negative socio-cultural impacts on tourism. However, population is going to keep growing there, it might cause some problems, such as pollutions and nature destructions with increase of logging in the future.

5.1.2 In KwaZulu-Natal region, more than half of the rural people are living under the poverty line, many people have been infected AIDS. The HIV/AIDS infection rates is almost the highest in South Africa. Through the apartheid era, many local people did not have educations, and it causes the poverty, high clime rates and social un-sustainability. Also, the lack of educations disturb them participating tourism industry at management levels. They only have skills to work as housekeepers and so on. Moreover, the apartheid era removed many local communities, and structured suitable laws for white settlement. Then new acts to protect removed people make a property right of owners unclear. Recently, a committee of KwaZulu-Natal tourism authority resolved this problem deciding who owned where, but they tend to look at economical revenue of tourism rather than socio-cultural sustainability. Some problems of property right are still left. In South Africa, people have not solved serious social and political problems yet.

ecotourism investment 1

2006年12月22日 06時20分23秒 | Weblog
4.1 Ecotourism in Otago, New Zealand.
Otago region is southeast part of the South Island, New Zealand. There are unique nature, such as Royal Albatross, yellow-eyed penguins, water and wading birds, variety of seals, coastlines and volcano. Ecotourism operators organize nature-based tourism and the Department of Conservation is assessing environmental sustainability. For example, Monarch Wildlife Cruises provide nature-observing cruises. Passengers are able to learn undisturbed nature along coastline with minimum impacts. Catlins Wildlife Trackers Ecotours and Walks offers two to four days walking ecotours to up to eight people once. Participants stay a lodge with guides and experience local unique nature in depth. Nature Guides Otago is organizing a day tours with experiences guides. Participants have chances to see variety of unique flora and fauna. Omaru Blue Penguin Colony operates tours to observe blue penguins keeping distance. People can look at a nature of blue penguins without damaging those habitats.

4.2 Ecotourism in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
KwaZulu-Natal region is east coast of South Africa. Official conservation agencies maintain a huge protected area, where is a habitat of elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, leopards and lions, and they also has wetlands and other ecosystems, where special biodiversities still remain. Especially, the St Lucia wetland Park, which is represented by a large and beautiful lake system and sub-tropical coastline, contains mountains, grasslands, forests, mangroves, dunes, beaches and coral reef. People successfully reintroduced some endangered species, such as elephants, hippos, crocodiles, flamingos and pelicans. Numbers of rhino, giraffe and buffalos are growing there. Some parts are the oldest national reserve in Africa. The Drakensberg Mountains attracts walkers and climbers. They have typical mass tourism destination along a coastline. KwaZulu-Natal has been a traditional domestic tourism destination, and almost six million international travelers visited there in year1999.

ecotourism definition 3

2006年12月22日 06時17分20秒 | Weblog
Conclusion
In tourism, people consume image of destinations and attractions, so ecotourism also bases on image by ecotourists. In culture ecotourism, differences of a culture against the western style play an important role, in nature ecotourism, lack of artificial products appeals kindness for green environment. Mass ecotourism involves strong relation between sustainable tourist city and a protected area, where is separated by buffer zones. Disproportion between tourism marketing image and practical attraction affects tourists satisfaction, which connect to potential tourism development and sustainability.
In a term of ecotourism, it requires educational components to minimize the impact or maximize the benefit. At least, investment to replace environment cost more than to educate people and prevent destruction in advance. For example, when people organise a guided tours following education course would help conservation work well. Even it would cost them to print out many handout, it is still less than cleaning up trash, which tourists throw away from walkway. Otherwise, if visitors studied environment there it is much valuable the tour is. This is almost same as the preview textbook before a class. Furthermore, for ecotourism organisers, studying comprehension of ‘real’ ecotourism would support the tourism development. If they have special knowledge about the environment and business management well, they can sustain their ecotourism business well. Black and Ham (2005, p.193) talk about an importance of professional certification for tour guides. It encourages guides to study for deeper comprehension of local environment, and learn teaching skills for ecotourists. The certification will increase quality of ecotours. Moreover, “It is hoped that the findings of this study will contribute to a sharper understanding of professional certification of tour guides and that the proposed general model will aid future programme developers and managers in developing successful and effective tour guide certification programmes” (Black & Ham, 2005, P. 193). Certification of professional tour guides will motivate operators to improve quality of their average ecotours, and further development.

ecotourism definition 2

2006年12月22日 06時14分08秒 | Weblog
Nature tourism as ecotourism
Nature ecotourism need to satisfy tourists desire with minimizing impact on the environment. However, even in minimizing impact in passive ecotourism, the impacts cannot be zero. In a term of active ecotourism, keeping the balance between attractions and environment becomes more important. Awaritefe (2004, p. 250) found “The result showing high importance attached to natural attractions was expected, while the low importance attached to safety/security and service related components was perplexing” though a research in Nigeria. In the case of ecotourism this ‘natural attraction’ should be an educational component or conservation works, for ecotourists. He also mentioned importance of uniqueness of nature based tourism compare to a quality of the constructed or man-made environment, which is more developed, planned and managed in Western environments. Furthermore, constructed environments such as infrastructure/ facilities/ amenities tend to be considered as disruptions, which reduces the quality of the natural tropical rainforest environment (Awaritefe, 2004, p. 251). This characteristic of nature tourism is very similar to ideal ecotourits, if reduction of artificial object decreases environmental impacts. Appreciation to the environment is a very important principle in operating ecotourism compared to nature tourism.
Their expectations of visually un-facilitated environment do not mean they tend to expect less service quality. If people require the same quality of service, a tourism industry needs to provide them with hided infrastructures. It does not minimize the impact so it cannot be ecotourism, or the tourism might cost more for local environment behind great wild view. To transform nature tourism to ecotourism, the destination needs to have educational components that explain environmental impact of each facility in their tourism strategy or advertisement. High expectation requires high quality of service to be satisfied. So, educational components are essential to control tourists’ expectations. Therefore, a nature tourist would satisfy less service context of a tour, and they could be an ecotourist.
However, it is not easy to manage an educational system and create an image of a destination for a tourism industry. Co-operation of marketing and conservation strategy would support it to protect the environment and attract ecotourists.
A logo of ‘ecolodge’ gives ecotourists standard of the accommodations, which is environmentally friendly and provide minimum services compared to luxury hotels. The logo attracts people who do not expect high quality of services in a global market. In addition, these people prefer supporting local community and environment that an ecolodge offers them. On the other hand, Osland and Mackoy mentioned (2004, p. 119), “In our sample, 80% of the Mexican ecolodges expressed community-oriented performance goals, whereas only 45% of the Costa Rican lodges mentioned community goals. We offer two possible explanations for these different results. First, we found that most of the ecolodges in Mexico are owned by Mexicans, while most of the ecolodges in our sample in Costa Rica are owned by foreigners.” The ecolodge’s relationship with local society affects their performance. In ecotourism, lodge owners should interact more with local communities to improve their quality of the logo. Therefore, they can develop economical benefit for local people and the people would support them to sustain the environment, where is foundation of their lodges.

Mass tourism as ecotourism
Mass tourism brings fresh money that people can pool it for conservation. It depends on a structure of a tourism industry, but local people receive more benefit than nothing. As long as the impact of tourism is less than the carrying capacity and tourists can learn about ecology, it would be ecotourism. It is impossible to organise a mass ecotour in undisturbed areas, but it is possible at carrying capacity hardening area. Weaver (2001, p. 87) explained about green space in urban area, where can operate mass ecotourism. Urban area is the best place for ecotourism when it is focusing on educational components of itself. However, the example is Canadian city of Waterloo, where about 90 thousand people were living, and the city has 85% of environment for wild flora and fauna in 2001. The percentage is almost same as the ‘95-5’ rule (Weaver, 2001, p. 81). That means in every ecotourism requires special area between human and nature space. Ecotourists want buffer zones probably for wildlife.
Goeldner and Ritchie (2003, p. 306) describe, “a major trend is the growth of the over-65 senior citizen market and the semi-senior citizen market”, and elder people tend to be soft-ecotourists such as birdwatchers rather than hard-ecotourists. They prefer observing nature to close interaction. They would create new market of ecotourism, and the importance of soft-ecotourism will increase.
“Although some authors (Mastny, 2001; Pleumarom, 2001) have correctly used 'mass ecotourism' as a derogatory label to describe the 'green' marketing efforts of transnational tourism corporations”(as cited in Kontogeorgopoulos, 2004, p.105), local community and a group of small tourism operators can organise a mass ecotourism, which must have educational components and economical benefit that support conservation work at a protected area. Kontogeorgopoulos, (2004, p.106) also stated, “Ecotourism in Phuket has developed as a by-product of conventional tourism, and as such, remains fundamentally linked to and dependent on the continued and future health of national and regional tourism development.”
The most valuable advantage of mass ecotourism is ‘minimizing impact’. Because it attracts tourists to 5% of natural area, it can protect 95% of natural environment. Moreover it can organise effective educational course for tourists, and the knowledge would help interest people in environment around them. It creates huge revenue for local community and conservation work as well.

ecoourism definition 1

2006年12月22日 06時13分12秒 | Weblog
Introduction
The ecotourism is one of alternative tourisms, and often appears in culture and nature based tourism. It includes sustainability of environment, socio-cultural and economic development and educational components. A Main purpose of ecotourism is protecting environment that often threatened by unsustainable development or cultural distinction. Unsustainable development causes poverty, and triggers distractions of environment that people cause to survive. Cultural distinction converts a balance between local people and an environment and affects the sustainability of the society.
Ecotourism can be applied to mass tourism for green consumers as long as it satisfies the ecotourism principles. Bigger number of travelers means higher revenue for conservation as well, so mass ecotourism would support development of ecotourism financially. However, often tourism customers decide what ecotourism is, and the industry side does not have strong initiatives for ecotourists to organise ‘right’ ecotourism.
Judd and Fainstein (1999, p. 5) mentioned “The tastes and desires of tourists are fickle; just like car buyers, they will yearn for next year’s model even before it appears”. If ecotourism operators follow visitors’ expectations without specific strategies for conservation, they are likely to step out from ecotourism principles: sustainability of development. According to Honey (1999, p. 15-17), the World Bank focused on tourism to reduce debt crisis of developing countries, and “many Third World countries turned to ecotourism as a foreign exchange earner that was potentially less destructive” (Honey, 1999, p.17).

Culture tourism as ecotourism
People can organize culture tourism in New York to observe ‘American capitalism culture’. Even many people visit, it would not harm New York environment but benefit local economics, so it is sustainable and beneficial for local people. However, tourism in New York cannot provide economical sustainability for local society, because of its size. There are many financial industries, which create much of economical revenue, so tourism industry does not play main role. That is a reason people are not interested in ecotour in New York. Cater (2006, p.24) stated, “Western-envisaged ecotourism needs to be viewed against the backdrop of the global political economy”. So, it is difficult to create an image of ecotourism in New York. As long as images of tours attract travelers to a destination, ecotourism cannot be organised in a culture, which is supported by capitalism or globalisation.
On the other hand, if many people from developed countries visit cultural heritage, it damages local society and culture. Zogrofos & Kenrick (2005, p.205) wrote, “Local people are able to manipulate the image they present to visitors to satisfy tourist images (Cohen 1988), in a process that has been termed reconstructing ethnicity' (MacCannell 1984). This process is not always seen as negative given its potential to reinforce ethnic identity (Smith 1982), help local people maintain their identity (Mansperger 1995) or revive values and identities (Van den Berghe 1994) in such a way that tourism can potentially become an empowering vehicle of self-representation (Stronza 2001)”. Weather as negative or positive, there is a crash and change when two cultures face. ‘Indigenousness’ people have to reconstruct their own culture comparing western custom.
Almost all of traditional cultures were developed by local people, who chosen their preference, however, they can never add up western lifestyle as the tradition. Zogrofos & Kenrick (2005, p. 206) also stated, “Accounting for the fact that 'indigenousness' notions are probably negotiated rather than imposed through the ecotourism encounter”, but the ‘indigenousness’ still has to be different from western style. Moreover as they also stated later, local people have to be identified as indigenous by advanced world “to maintain control over asserting their own notions of indigenous identity and more generally, asserting control over the development of ecotourism and the use of local resources” (Zogrofos & Kenrick, 2005, p. 206).
A principle of Ecotourism contains “3. Promotes ethical behaviour toward local communities and environment, 7. Supports local community empowerment through genuine and full participation” (IPC definition). So, ecotourism may support local people to organise and conserve their traditional culture. Then it would help them avoid stereotypes by other cultures, although, the tradition has to be considered as ‘indigenousness’ by advanced world, where ecotourists come from.

North Kapiti

2006年12月22日 06時11分47秒 | Weblog
Introduction.
Kapiti Island is “10 km long and about 2 km wide”(DOC, 1997), and it has been nature reserve since 1897. However, the north end of the island was used as a resort and limited farming between 1920-1961. In 1994, “rats were discovered eating birds eggs” (Katz, 2001, p5), and in 1995, a program “to eradicate rat was initiated” (Katz, 2001, p5). Then, in 1998, “Nick Smith [Minister of Conservation] officially declared Kapiti island rat free” (Katz, 2001, p5). The DOC is still strict on observing rat and other pests’ reintroduction, because “it is the only large island sanctuary for birds between Hauraki Gulf in the north and New Zealand’s southern outlying island” (DOC, 1997). On private owned land at the north part of the island, landowners cooperate with Department of Conservation and manage ecotourism, and attract tourists from all over the world.

Discussion.
Concession cost and effect: To protect natural reserve, concessions play an important role. However, it burdens tour organisers too much and could eliminate local operators out of ecotourism.
According to the Department of Conservation (2006), the concession of low impact process costs applicants at least $1190 + GST each, and high impact process takes 6-12 months. Then, J. Barrett stated ecotourism has low profitability (personal communication, September 6, 2006). It is not easy to afford concession cost for local operators, so the cost would lead local businesses to be taken over by corporations, which can withstand high investment. Moreover, multinational corporations which attract up-market visitors can construct their “own wastes management facility to minimize the risk of pollution”(Ioannides & Holcomb, 2003, p. 42).
On the other hand, Department of Conservation relies on taxation, which is coming from domestic money flow. So, it is not clear whether even the Department could keep their neutrality of concessions or not.

Native flora and fauna: J. Barrett said that after the end of the farming, the number of birds has increased and those birds brought seeds of plants to Kapiti Island. (personal communication, September 6, 2006). It appears to have positive feedback on the environment. However, this process has been in development for less than 20 years. It is difficult to see an alternative result of natural introductions of flora and fauna. At least, the main North Island of New Zealand is full of introduced plant species, which could be introduced to Kapiti by immigrating birds. The balance between native and introduced flora is unclear. Moreover, both of the amounts of introduced flora and fauna are still less than carrying capacity of Kapiti Island, and increasing in number. When the numbers reach the capacity, someone needs to decide whether they would move toward active conservation or keep observing.

Financial aspect: According to J. Barrett, the ecotourism industry is less profitable than other industries (personal communication, September 6, 2006), so they have difficulty funding primary investment. However, according to Osland, & Mackoy, “by self-assessment, the ecolodges were performing well on almost all of the other types of performance goals that managers and owners reported” (2004, p. 122). So, once financial organisations notice the ecolodge performances they will support ecotourism financially.

Transportation problems: As J. Barrett told us about birdwatchers from Europe (personal communication, September 6, 2006), it is beneficial that international ecotourists experience New Zealand undisturbed environment. However, Byrnes & Warnken mentioned, “Transport to and between destinations has been identified as tourism’s major contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions” (2006, p.255), and the global warming has long term impacts as the climate change. Local conservation activities in particular area cannot withstand abrupt global change. People need to cooperate to work for that.

Recommendations: to better meet IPC’s definition of ecotourism.
Regulation of a direct financial benefit for conservation: The ecotour on Kapiti Island satisfies other 9 principles of IPC definition. It is based on the natural environment and community, benefit local society, and the guide talk and handout had enough educational components. Along a track, I saw native birds and plants, landform that tell us the local climate, and some traps to pests. Then, the ecotour follows the concession by Department of Conservation.
However, it was not clear that precisely how much financing they did for conservation every year. Especially, a private company does not have specific profits and a tour guiding is seasonal work, so they tend to have flexible expenditure for conservation. Therefore, ecotourism operators should store exact amount of funds every month for sustainable maintenance of natural reserve.

Conclusion.
1. Too close interaction between residents and bird: Because of long Ngati Toa tribe resident history, relationship between native birds and people are very close. However, native birds should not depend on humans, such as tourists. Ecotourists should keep their distance from native flora and fauna, and ecotourism operators should separate natural environment from ecotourists impact, such as walking track, accommodation and transportation.

2. Information for pest control: On the way to the island the guide distributed a handout about pest control, but I did not feel bothered reading it. The handout was recycled one. Ecotourism is able to protect nature, informing tourists about pest control, and it is much cheaper than pesticide after reintroduction. That handout is very useful for every ecotourists.

3. Domestic tourists rather than international. As J. Barrett mentioned in his speech, talking to local people and students about precious nature is an ecotour as well (personal communication, September 6, 2006). Furthermore, the number of domestic tourists is bigger than international travelers, and local people have more impact on the local environment. Ecotourism businesses should focus on education for local residents to conserve the environment together. Then, “marketing to repeat visitors is more economical than continually trying to attract new consumers” (Ioannides & Holcomb, 2003, p.44), and international tourists to New Zealand have geographical difficulties coming back again. So, focusing on domestic tourists has economical benefits as well.