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The concepts of ecotourism and sustainable tourism at the local level refer to the processes within which tourism can foster and contribute to sustainable development at tourist destinations. This thesis argues that in order for destinations to move towards sustainability, tourism must be properly planned and managed towards this goal. Assuming that tourism is a community-industry, planning for tourism must incorporate the perspectives of all tourism stakeholders, including community residents who share their space with tourists and are also part of the tourism product. Using a mixed-methodology that combined 11 unstructured interviews with a 117-respondent survey, this study reports the main constraints for the development of a sustainable tourist destination. It also brings to light the perspectives of the local community on tourism development. I conclude that for the destination to move towards sustainability, barriers must be acknowledged and overcome. Some suggestions are made in this regard.

The concepts of ecotourism and sustainable tourism at the local level refer to the processes within which tourism can foster and contribute to sustainable development at tourist destinations. This thesis argues that in order for destinations to move towards sustainability, tourism must be properly planned and managed towards this goal. Assuming that tourism is a community-industry, planning for tourism must incorporate the perspectives of all tourism stakeholders, including community residents who share their space with tourists and are also part of the tourism product. Using a mixed-methodology that combined 11 unstructured interviews with a 117-respondent survey, this study reports the main constraints for the development of a sustainable tourist destination. It also brings to light the perspectives of the local community on tourism development. I conclude that for the destination to move towards sustainability, barriers must be acknowledged and overcome. Some suggestions are made in this regard. / Science, Faculty of / Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), Institute for / Graduate

The growing industry of whale-watching is allowing increasing numbers of people access to whales in their natural environment, and constitutes a non-consumptive use of the whales compared to whaling. At the same time, questions are often raised about the hidden effects of whale-watching on the whales. A population of gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) which spends the summer feeding in Clayoquot Sound, on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, is regularly observed by whale-watchers from the nearby tourist centre of Tofino. Concern among whale-watching business operators and tourists about the possible effects of whale-watching on the feeding whales was heightened in the years preceding this study by an apparent northward movement of the whales, taking them farther from the Tofino, the point of departure for whale-watching tours. This study attempts to explain this apparent trend by finding out whether the whales' short-term behaviour is affected by the presence of whale-watching vessels, and by examining their short and long-term behaviour in the wider context of some of the features of their environment. Whales were observed from a small research vessel for three feeding seasons, in five locations within the area known as Clayoquot Sound. The whales' ventilations were recorded continuously and their location and the number of whale-watching vessels present was recorded at regular intervals. The whales' benthic prey was sampled in all three seasons and their planktonic prey in 1995. A series of variables were calculated from the ventilation data and compared to the number of vessels. The whales' dive behaviour was correlated much more strongly with feeding location than with vessel number. Even with these two factors taken into account, much of the variation in their behaviour remains unaccounted for. Because of this, although the behavioural change in the presence of vessels is statistically significant, there is reason to doubt whether it is biologically significant. The effects of feeding location are probably a composite of the effects of depth, prey type and other factors which are difficult to measure. Of the two main components, prey type appears to have a greater effect than depth on gray whale behaviour. Interaction exists between the effects of site and those of whale-watch vessels, meaning that the effects of vessels are different at different sites. The general pattern is that the effects of vessel presence are more pronounced in shallow sites than in deep, although there are some exceptions to this trend. Gray whale prey shows considerable variation in location, density and composition from year to year. The long-term patterns of gray whale habitat use more closely resemble a prey-selection-driven pattern than a pattern of avoidance of whale-watch vessels. The relatively small influence of vessel numbers on gray whale feeding behaviour suggests that the current guidelines in place for whale-watching vessels are effective in limiting disturbance of the whales. The variable nature of their prey supply suggests that gray whales use all the sites in Clayoquot Sound, and that the availability of a diverse selection of prey is necessary for their success in the tertiary feeding grounds. / Graduate

The relationships between gender and the environment have been explored most fully throughout the field of ecofeminism, which examines environmental problems through the lens of gender, revealing the ways that the oppression of women and the exploitation of nature are conjoined and mutually reinforcing. However, ecofeminism has often been ignored, re-named, or subjected to critiques of gender essentialism. As a result, I return to the 1993 Clayoquot Sound protests on Vancouver Island, British Columbia to re-examine the theory and praxis of ecofeminism. I argue that the main environmental organization, the Friends of Clayoquot Sound (FOCS), consciously invoked ecofeminist principles of equality, consensus and non-violence to direct the camp and campaign. Ecofeminism within Clayoquot Sound kept gender equality at the forefront of the environmental movement while challenging traditional hierarchical power relations and systems of dominance that many social movements experience. Clayoquot Sound was therefore a watershed social movement that integrated a gendered perspective into environmental discourse, analysis, and action. I urge further research and reflection among both activists and academics regarding the intersections between environmentalism and feminism, especially in today’s worsening climate crisis. / Graduate

British Columbia is undergoing a transformation in both its forestry policy regime and its regime governing aboriginal policy. Forestry policy has evolved from what once was a closed network, dominated by the ministry of forests and the forestry industry, to a more expansive network that includes a variety of interests. British Columbia's aboriginal policy now recognizes the legitimacy of aboriginal claims to traditional territories, and has correspondingly initiated a treaty negotiation process with B.C.'s First Nations. A synthesis has emerged between aboriginal politics and the provincial forestry regime in some parts of the province. Consequently, two independant policy sectors have converged and this new policy phenomenon has been unexplored by political scientists. Clayoquot Sound, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, is an area at the forefront of forestry policy development. This thesis, therefore, uses Clayoquot Sound as a case study of sector convergence. In doing so, this thesis explains the phenomena of inter-sector penetration and explores its consequences to policy theory.

British Columbia is undergoing a transformation in both its forestry policy regime and its regime governing aboriginal policy. Forestry policy has evolved from what once was a closed network, dominated by the ministry of forests and the forestry industry, to a more expansive network that includes a variety of interests. British Columbia's aboriginal policy now recognizes the legitimacy of aboriginal claims to traditional territories, and has correspondingly initiated a treaty negotiation process with B.C.'s First Nations. A synthesis has emerged between aboriginal politics and the provincial forestry regime in some parts of the province. Consequently, two independant policy sectors have converged and this new policy phenomenon has been unexplored by political scientists. Clayoquot Sound, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, is an area at the forefront of forestry policy development. This thesis, therefore, uses Clayoquot Sound as a case study of sector convergence. In doing so, this thesis explains the phenomena of inter-sector penetration and explores its consequences to policy theory. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate