Incorporating the value of watchable wildlife in the landuse planning process: values and impacts of British Columbia's bear-viewing industry

Nevin, Owen ORCID logo ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3513-8053 and Swain, Peter (2007) Incorporating the value of watchable wildlife in the landuse planning process: values and impacts of British Columbia's bear-viewing industry. In: 18th International Conference on Bear Research & Management, 4-11 November 2007, Monterrey, Nuevo León, México. (Unpublished) Full text not available from this repository.

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Abstract

We examined the economic impact of commercial grizzly bear viewing in British Columbia and the potential impact it could have on the new land-use planning process. Surveys of operators described economic rents attributed to bear viewing and identified barriers to success and positive elements within the industry. We incorporated a tourist motivation questionnaire to describe the importance of bear viewing on choice to visit the region and province in order to accurately allocate visitor expenditures. Responses support the presence of a wildlife-viewer tourist typology. Responses from bear viewing operators were not sufficient to enable a full industry economic analysis but were adequate for the creation of a set of parameters for future planning of grizzly bear viewing operations in the province, as is required by the land-use planning process. A map of possible grizzly bear viewing locations on the coast was produced and compared to known biodiversity values and presence of old growth forest, with a discussion on the potential commercial bear viewing has to preserve high value landscape. Mean values of bear viewing operations indicated they were worth the equivalent of 1290 Hectares of Oldgrowth forest when measured on a simple financial basis. Legislative, operational and other barriers to success are discussed in the context of expanding the commercial grizzly bear viewing industry.

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Speech)
Departments: Academic Departments > Science, Natural Resources & Outdoor Studies (SNROS) > Forestry and Conservation
Depositing User: Insight Administrator
Date Deposited: 30 Mar 2011 16:21
Last Modified: 11 Jan 2024 20:15
URI: https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/927
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