ABSTRACT
Ecotourism is a potential lever for sustainable development, but common standards and approaches lack to manage and monitor the impact of defined packages on natural resources and local communities. A customized version of Ecological Footprint Accounting is evaluated here to assess its usefulness as analytical tool to quantitatively analyse the environmental pressures associated with ecotourism packages developed in and around Protected Areas in the Mediterranean Region. Within the framework of the EU-funded DestiMED project, a bottom-up, participatory approach was developed for managing and monitoring 13 ecotourism packages by involving local tourism stakeholders and service providers. The application of Ecological Footprint Accounting relied on data sourced from local service providers to complement existing statistics and datasets, and was used in an empirical iterative process to provide local tourism stakeholders with recommendations to guide them in the management of a low-impact tourism offer. International travel to and from the 13 destinations was found to place a Footprint on the environment - mainly because of carbon emissions - higher than that of the entire stay at destination. Footprint results of the packages revealed some overlooked tourism's impacts on ecosystems due to unexpected drivers, such as the Food & Drink services offered to tourists at destination. Results indicate that managing tourism product development at destination, and investing in providing knowledge on the principles of sustainability, could lower ecotourism's impacts whilst contributing to building resilience and aiding the post-COVID recovery of destinations. Management implications: This article tested the applicability and usefulness of Ecological Footprint Accounting (EFA) to assess ecotourism packages developed in and around Protected Areas (PAs) across the Mediterranean Region. A customized version of Ecological Footprint Accounting is suitable for managers and can be used to quantitatively assess the multiple pressures of the activities included in ecotourism packages through a bottom up approach. This innovative monitoring process typically fosters the engagement with the local service providers, which is key for a sustainability monitoring of the touristic offer. Applied to ecotourism packages, EFA allows identifying the main ecosystems under pressure as well as the main drivers causing such pressures. This information is useful to understand the actual impacts caused by the packages offered in their territory, and - when combined with tangible recommendations for improvements - to help adjust the services offered in the packages to possibly reduce environmental impacts.
ABSTRACT
This report provides a biennial assessment of the South Australian Spencer Gulf Prawn Fishery (SGPF) for the 2018/19 and 2019/20 fishing years. The aims of this report were to: (i) provide brief synopses of the management of the fishery and biology of the Western King Prawn (Penaeus (Melicertus) latisulcatus);(ii) review the performance of the fishery;(iii) determine the current status of the resource;and (iv) identify future research and monitoring needs. The total harvest by the SGPF reached 2,121 t in 2018/19 and 1,743 t in 2019/20. The fleet required 53 nights in 2018/19, but due to the COVID-affected markets during 2019/20, industry restricted the season to 40 nights. These annual harvests and effort totals translated into catches per unit effort (CPUEs) in 2018/19 and 2019/20 of 109.7 and 127.3 kg h-1, respectively;the latter being the second highest recorded, and both exceeding the reference point (RP, 80 kg h-1) for this economic performance indicator (PI). Size grade composition of the annual harvest and the mean 7-kg 'bucket count' indicate a downward trend in average prawn size over the past several years. While this may be partly due to the revised size criteria in the current harvest strategy (where there is a trade-off between higher minimum catches and smaller prawn size criteria to provide greater flexibility to industry), it is likely to reflect the continued influx of new recruits from consecutive high (and record) recruitment years causing a disproportionate effect on the size composition and bucket count. Both the mean survey CPUE of 'adult' prawns (size grades comprising fewer than 20 prawns per pound) and 'newly recruited' prawns (more than 20 prawns per pound, i.e. '20+' grade) throughout 2018/19 and 2019/20 remained above their respective lower RPs. This resulted in the development of standard fishing strategies, except for an increasing fishing strategy after the March 2019 survey due to the mean survey CPUEadults exceeding the upper RP. The estimated mean egg production of 490 M eggs trawl-h-1 in October 2019 fell below the RP (500 M eggs trawl-h-1) for the first time since 2006/07;however, the recruitment index of 8.36 lb min-1 in March 2020 - which provides a more reliable window into the outlook for the fishery - was the highest recorded and more than three times the RP (2.38 lb min-1). The weighted mean CPUEadults (+or- 95% CI) from the October/November, February/March and April surveys during 2018/19 and 2019/20 were 4.19 +or- 0.16 lb min-1 and 4.14 +or- 0.21 lb min-1, respectively, both of which are above the trigger reference point (TRP;2.50 lb min-1). Under the definition in the harvest strategy, the stock is classified as 'sustainable'. Future research needs will primarily be focused on establishing the components of an ecological monitoring program to assess the impact of the fishery on the benthic ecosystem, improving the standardisation of survey catches in these assessments, and development of theory-based RPs (from the prawn bio-economic model) for consideration in a future iteration of the harvest strategy.