Interpretation is frequently seen as effective in managing tourist-wildlife interactions because it increases awareness about a species and encourages a conservation ethic (Beckmann 1991, Moscardo 1998). Interpretation has been advocated as the most effective management strategy for wildlife encounters (Orams 1996). Implicit in this belief is that by changing people's attitude, interpretation will change their behaviour (Roggenbuck 1992).Petty et al. (1997) define an attitude as an evaluation of an object (eg. people, animal, etc.) that exists along a dimension ranging from positive to negative. In reflecting on attitude change it helps to conceptualise an attitude as comprised of three main components: affect, cognition, and behaviour. The affective component consists of a person's feeling towards an object, the cognitive component consists of a person's knowledge and understanding of an object and the behavioural component involves a person's actual behaviour towards the object (Knudson et al. 1999).Although attitude is conceptualised as having three main components, most past research on interpretation has focused on changes in cognition (Beckmann 1991). Howard (1998) suggested that as people attend interpretive programs at leisure affective realms are important, and as such, mood theory might improve our understanding of: the intrinsically rewarding feelings that characterise this type of leisure experience; and how interpretation may influence people's behaviour. The influence of affective realms on interpretive programs is poorly understood and not well researched (Howard 1998). This paper contributes to our understanding of cognition and affect in interpretive setting by providing the results of a preliminary study conducted at Mon Repos Conservation Park.

No abstract

Assisting those wanting to explore localisation as a transformative sustainability strategy, this article provides the results of interviews with six localisation experts to determine localisation metrics. The interviews aimed to determine localisation qualities that should be captured for localisation measurement, and/or metrics that might be used to measure these. The shared expert belief and opinion regarding these metrics and qualities was expanded using writings by these and other experts. The formed metric set includes:(1) resource self-reliance; (2) resource dependence; (3) social health; (4) environmental damage/impact; (5) localisation type/governance participation; and (6) control and ownership of resources, land, assets and business. These metrics may be used to determine how localised a community, region, or country is, and to form localisation indexes. This article describes the formation of the metric set, and may assist clarification of localisation understandings by enabling measurement.

SUMMARYThis paper provides a systematic way to consider justice in community-based environmental planning and management. A conceptual framework connects the literature on management functions to the empirical and theoretical research on justice. Two contrasting case studies of the water reform process in Australia are used to illustrate how to apply this framework. These case studies show that certain perspectives of justice are particularly pertinent during different phases of a planning process, and that community-based environmental planning and management can be more difficult when the stakeholders involved have different values and views about a resource, and when perceived injustices occur early in a planning process.

No abstract