The question of the relationship between society and environment was addressed through the study of a remote fishing village of seven hundred and fifty people. An interdisciplinary approach was adopted in which the demographic, economic and social aspects of the community were investigated. . The integration of the disciplinary perspectives was facilitated by simulation modeling.
The population of the village had grown gradually in size since its inception, but a decline occurred in the 1960*s. The migration rate was correlated with declining fish harvests and was concomitant with the expansion of communications with urban centers. A turn-around in migration had recently developed supported by an influx of people from the southern cities. Fishing provided the majority of economic opportunity, followed in importance by logging. A survey was conducted to investigate the costs and revenues of the fishermen of the village. Diversification was found to characterize the local fleet and analysis showed that the rates of return on investment in the current year were egualized between vessel types.
Social and cultural features were found to be closely linked to environmental variables. Seasonality in birth rates was related to the pattern of work, loads. Attitudes toward locality among high school youth were studied through a regional survey. The analysis confirmed the hypothesis that there was a
greater preference among youth of the village for staying than was indicated in other resource towns of the north Vancouver Island district. A diversity of formal and informal organizations facilitated social integration, though factional divisions and attitude differences toward future development were present. In response to developmental pressures, a realignment
of the traditional organizations to focus on regional issues concerned with land and marine resources was taking place.
The variable levels and rate parameters of the demographic, economic and social components of the model were specified using static and time series data. Sensitivity analysis to assess the effects of uncertainty, and validation tests against known historical changes were conducted. Forecast scenarios identified the development options under several levels of fish abundance and investment. The weight given to ecological versus economic resource management registered disproportionate effects due to the interaction between investment and migration rates and resource stochasticity. This finding argued against a "golden mean" rule for evaluating policy trade-offs and sugggested the importance of using a dynamic, socio-ecological perspective in designing policies for rural communities. / Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/21245 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Miller, Philip Carl |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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