Extreme tourism Antarctica.

A Case Study of Tourism in An extreme environment

 

For this case study we looked at ANTARCTICA

There are 3 or 4 main parts you need to know about this:

1.      Why more people are taking holidays in extreme environments and why there has been an increase in adventure holidays

2.     The effects of tourism on an extreme environment

3.     Strategies to cope with increasing tourism in an extreme environment

1/ Increasing numbers:

Antarctica is becoming an increasingly popular destination for tourists. Tourist numbers have gone from 9,000 in 1992-93 up to around 50,000 last year. Most fly to New Zealand or Chile or Argentina and then take a ship from there.

The main reason numbers have risen is:

·        Accessibility is better (though it is still a long journey)

·        Awareness of extreme environments has risen through TV and media

·        People see it as a ‘last chance to see’. In other words, due to global warming and climate change, the Antarctic may not remain as it is for much longer

·        More people want a holiday that is a challenge, that is off the beaten track and that is unique. Extreme environments offer all these things.

2/ Effects tourism has:

This video is a good place to start if you are revising the reasons more people are going to Antarctica and the effects they are having there. You don’t need to watch past the 2 minute mark on this.

One thing to remember about why the effects can be so serious is that:

“The environment is also incredibly sensitive. It can take many hundreds of years for rubbish to decompose because of the extremely low temperatures, and the food chain is also delicate because most of the marine life rely upon Krill as their primary source of food.”

In other words the ENVIRONMENT IS VERY FRAGILE. If the krill are disturbed or their numbers reduced by oil spills, then the whole ecosystem in the sea and on land is badly affected. Large ships also mean that more people come on shore for each visit. This makes ensuring the regulations put in place are much harder to enforce as people spread out over a wider area and so disturb more of the fragile environment.

3/ Managing tourism

The first agreement for Antarctic was way back in 1961. Countries promised to make sure Antarctica is used for peaceful purposes only; to promote international scientific cooperation in Antarctica. Tourism today still follows these rules.

Today the IATO (International Association of Antarctic Tour operators) has its own guidelines. But the main problem is that these are not law and so companies don’t have to follow them. Since over 100 companies operate tours to the Antarctic, this makes things very tricky.

There is the problem of ships and the oil and other waste they can dump in the ocean waters. This talked about on the video above. As a result tourist ships have been. YOU NEED TO INCLUDE THIS IN EXAM ANSWERS ON THIS CASE STUDY.

Apart from the size of the ships and possible water pollution, here are some other useful strategies to remember for your exam

·        Limit the number of people allowed onshore to view animals to 100 at a time

·        All visitors to keep at least 5 metres away from all wildlife.

·        Do not walk on moss and lichen

·        Do not leave litter or waste

·        Have groups led by qualified scientists, so they are told the true nature and value of Antarctica. This will also encourage tourists to behave in a responsible way.

Tropical Tourism Case-study Kenya, East Africa.

Where is Kenya?

Kenya is located in East Africa, its capital city is Nairobi and it has a population of approximately 30 million people.

Why visit Kenya?

• - it has an attractive climate (tropical) with sunshine all year round, hot and humid at the coast; temperate inland and dry in the NE (rainy season - April-June and Oct-Dec, heavy rainfall in the afternoon and early evening)

• - Safari holidays are popular - e.g. in the Maasai Mara / Nakuru National Park - Kenya has spectacular wildlife - including the big 5 - Lion, Elephant, Rhinoceros, Leopard and Buffalo


• - Cultural experience - many tourists visit local tribes such as the Maasai to find out more about their lifestyle and traditions

• - Coastal Holidays - SE of Kenya has fine sands and coral reefs with spectacular marine life - e.g. Mombassa

Why have numbers of tourists visiting Kenya increased?

• - Kenya was one of the first LEDC countries to acheive mass tourism and in the 1970s and 1980s there was a rapid increase in the numbers of tourists, particularly following the release of the films Born Free and Out of Africa.


• - Tourist numbers have also increased as larger aircraft in the 1980s brought prices of air travel down.

Advantages of Tourism to Kenya:

• - Tourism encourages the building of new roads and better communications
• - Jobs in tourism have helped develop people's business skills
• - Tourism has created all year round jobs for Kenyans
• - Tourism is Kenya's biggest earner of foreign exchange
• -Tourism has stimulated farming, by creating a demand for local food from farmers
  
• - National Parks have been created - encouraging people to protect the environment.

Disadvantages of Tourism for Kenya:

• - there is leakage of income - with a lot of the money paid for holidays never actually reaching Kenya (travel companies and foreign owned hotels get it instead)

• - Safari minibuses disturb animals - often getting too close (e.g. can be 30-40 buses around a single animal in the Maasai Mara), they also cause soil erosion as the wheels churn up the grass


• - many Maasai are traditionally nomadic, but many have been forced out of the National Parks - losing their land and also losing their traditional lifestyles.


• - Hot air balloons in parks disturb animals - by casting shadows and from the noise of the burners.


• - Coastal Environments such as those in Mombassa have been damaged - e.g. destruction of coral reefs as tourists step on the coral and also take souvenirs.


• - Drugs and crime has increased and AIDS is a major problem

Working towards sustainable tourism in Kenya - KIGO CONSERVANCY - An example of ECOTOURISM.
Kigio Conservancy was set up in 1997 on an old beef / dairy ranch with the aim of providing a wildlife sanctuary and a sustainable eco-tourism destination.

The accommodation at Kigio is in "cottages" built of mud, timber and thatch, using local and reclaimed materials and methods. The furniture is built from re-claimed timber from the ground and there is no electricity, oil lamps are instead used.


Kigio has a number of ecotourism activities it is involved in:

• - partnerships with local communities - helping to fund and work on community projects
• - provides links with local schools with schools in the UK, raising money for new classrooms and other projects (e.g. water tanks)
• - partnerships with conservation organisations such as the Tusk Trust - which has involved setting up conservation centre for use by local schools and providing sustainable development education for local communities
• - employees local people - e.g. guides and other workers
• - conservation activities - e.g. looking after orphaned wildlife - e.g. 2003 relocation of giraffe into the area - including a baby giraffe from the Karen Blixen Giraffe Orphange in Nairobi.

Economic Migration Polish to the UK.

Economic Migration: This is a type of voluntary migration where people migrate for job reasons. This might because they have no job in their current location or that a job in a different location offers better pay or a better position.

Push Factor: Things that make you want to leave the destination that you live in.

Pull Factor: Things that attract you to a new location.

Discrimination: Unfair treatment of a person, racial/ethnic/cultural group or minority group.

Migration - Poland to the UK In 2001 the UK Census showed that there were about 60,000 Polish born people living in the UK. However, by 2010 it was estimated that this figure 515,000 (some unofficial estimates say it is closer to 1 million). The large-scale migration started in 2004 when Poland and seven other countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary and the Czech Republic) joined the EU. Their membership of the EU gave Poles much greater freedom to travel, live and work in other EU member countries. Most Poles have applied and registered to work in the UK legally, but others have visited the UK and just not left - this is why the true number of Poles inside the UK is not fully known. Poles may not officially register to avoid paying tax on their earnings. Many of the unregistered migrants maybe working in farming. Farm working is very seasonal, so these workers may spend a lot of time moving between jobs and also returning home in between seasons. Most Poles have migrated because they have better economic opportunities in the UK than Poland (although the current global recession has encouraged many to return home). Although the migration of Eastern Europeans has inflamed some nationalist sentiment, on the whole Poles contribute an awful lot more to the British economy than they take. Many of the people protesting against migrants would not do the jobs migrants do and would certainly not do it for similar pay and treatment (not necessarily by workers, but some members of the public).

Push Factors from Poland and Eastern Europe

Pull Factors to the United Kingdom

GDP per capita of $20,100 (many migrants work in secondary and primary sector which earn significantly less) 17.4% of people employed in agriculture - these jobs are low paid and some might be going because of mechanisation 12% unemployment (youth unemployment 20.7%) 17% of population below poverty line Life expectancy 76 years

Member of the EU so can travel to without a visa and is able to work GDP per capita $35,900 1.4% employed in agriculture 7.9% unemployment (youth unemployment 18.9%) 14% of population below poverty line Life expectancy 80.1 years (the higher life expectancy suggests a better healthcare system) Chance of a better education for children. Learning English may present more opportunities in the future Chance of improving skill levels (certainly linguistic skills) Experience of living in a different country Knowledge of good transport links back to Poland

	Poland	United Kingdom
Positive Impacts of Migration	Remittances sent home to relatives in Poland There are improved social, cultural and political links to the UK Reduced pressure on schools and hospitals Reduced levels of unemployment as more jobs become available for people who have stayed The vast majority of migrants return to Poland with greater wealth, better language skills and possible training acquired in their work. Possible reduced levels of congestion and pollution.	Skilled workers like plumbers and electricians have migrated filling many shortages in the UK. Polish food has been introduced to the UK and is now readily available in most supermarkets. There are improved social, cultural and political links to Poland The majority of Poles are only going to stay in the UK if they have jobs, therefore the majority are paying taxes Many Poles are seasonal migrants and work in farming when demand for workers is highest during harvest. Migrants can reduce production costs and make UK manufacturing more competitive by accepting the minimum wage
Negative Impacts of Migration	Mainly the economically active are leaving Poland which is increasing the dependency ratio Family division although airlines like Ryanair and Easy Jet do offer cheap flights between the UK and Poland. Loss of skilled workers, especially in the construction sector Possible worker shortages during harvest time Reduced tax revenues from workers who have left - although considering the high unemployment, vacant jobs left by migrants should be filled.	Migration has caused some racial tension between Brits and migrants. Some political parties like the BNP have seen an increase in support. Cost of providing education for Polish students. Increased pressure on welfare support if Polish become unemployed in the UK. Cost of providing healthcare to workers and their families that become sick. Increased pressure on housing. Increased congestion and pollution Cost of translation - in the UK things like road signs have had to be translated to Polish Any increase in population can increase in demand and therefore may create inflation

India-Kerala birth control programme.

 

Kerala in India – an alternative birth control policy

Kerala is a state in Southern India and is a popular stop off point for Western tourists. India launched its family planning programme in 1952, just a few years after independence from the British. Kerala was part of that programme, and used a range of social changes as well as contraception to bring down its birth rate. Kerala now has a fertility rate of just 1.8 per 1000, which compares very well with the UK’s 1.7 and is lower than India’s 3.1. Kerala is a very densely populated state, with 819 people per km2, and has 32 million people living there. Its policy to reduce its population growth rate included a range of measures that would DIRECTLY reduce birth rates and some that would INDIRECTLY reduce birth rates;

1. Providing literacy classes in villages – to raise education levels and to help people make informed family planning choices

2. Improving education EQUALLY between boys and girls – this emancipates women, makes them more likely to find formal work and delay child bearing ages.
 3. Providing free contraception and advice – to DIRECTLY lower births rates

 

4. Allowing maternity leave for the first 2 births only – this discourages women from having a third child
 5. Improving child health through vaccination programmes – this reduces Infant Mortality which reduces peoples needs to have lots of children (the replacement rate factor)

 

6. Encouraging a higher marriage age through poster campaigns – this reduces the length of time women can have babies

7. Provide extra retirement benefits to those who have smaller families

8. Land was reformed so that everyone had access to farming land, allowing people to be self sufficient if they had small families
 This programme has been a huge success with low fertility rates, slow population growth of 1.2%, more girls going to university than boys, low infant mortality rates (12 per 1000) and a right to literacy programme.

Transmigration Indonesia

Transmigration in Indonesia.
Source: Over populated islands of Indonesia, for example, Java.
Destination: Under populated outer Islands such as Maluku.
Reasons:

• Government incentives to ease population pressures on Islands such as Java.
• Possibility of spreading development to more remote Islands.

Consequences for area they arrive in:
In total over three million people have moved so this obviously puts great pressures on the areas they arrive in. Thousand of acres of rainforest have been cleared and this has led to soil erosion. Consequently, a large quantity of the land soon becomes unsuitable for farming. This is made worse by the shortage of tool and destruction of crops by wild animals. The remoteness of Islands makes commercial farming very difficult.
There has been friction with the migrants and the indigenous population. Trans-migrants receive two hectares of land as an incentive to move. Indigenous people see this as government favouritism. The tension is accentuated as sometimes migrants are given areas of land that locals used for shifting cultivation.
In some of the least populated Island migrants threaten to completely out number locals.
Consequences for area they leave:
The population on main Islands like Java is continuing to grow rapidly and the trans-migration scheme is providing minimal relief. Also many trans-migrants are returning after having little success on the outer Islands. Transmigration has done little to remove the problems of over-population.
Consequences for the migrant:
Many migrants failed to make a living in the outer Islands finding life more difficult than that in Java. Indeed, average earnings were higher in rural Java than any re-settlement Island.

China's changes OCP law.

Population Pyramids

 

 

Population structure and population pyramids

Population structure means the 'make up' or composition of a population. Looking at the population structure of a place shows how the population is divided up between males and females of different age groups.
Population structure is usually shown using a population pyramid. A population pyramid can be drawn up for any area, from a whole continent or country to an individual town, city or village.
The following graphs show the population pyramids of an MEDC (the UK) and an LEDC (Mozambique), for 2000 and in 2025 using projected figures. The left side of each pyramid shows the number of men in each age group, the right side shows the number of women in each age group.

Population pyramid for the UK 2000

Notice how in the UK 2000 pyramid there is a bulge in the area of the 30-34 and 35-39 age groups, with the numbers thereafter reducing fairly steadily as the ages increase. This matches stage 4 of the demographic transition model.

Projected population pyramid for the UK 2025

Compare this to the 2025 pyramid, which would be stage 5 in the model. Here the bulge extends much further, covering the age groups 30-64, with the numbers beginning to reduce significantly only after 64.
Now compare the UK population pyramids with those for Mozambique:

Population pyramid for Mozambique 2000

In this graph, notice that in 2000 the 0-4 age group contained the largest number of people, with the numbers thereafter declining steadily as the ages increase. The graph matches stage 1 in the model.

Projected population pyramid for Mozambique 2025

In the second graph, the largest group in Mozambique in 2025 is still the 0-4 age group, but there are nearly as many people in the 5-29 age groups. Now the population pyramid matches stage 2

Causes and rates of change

The three main causes of population change

• Births - usually measured using the birth rate (number of live births per 1,000 of the population per year).
• Deaths - usually measured using the death rate (number of deaths per 1,000 of the population per year).
• Migration - the movement of people in and out of an area.

Rate of change

Births and deaths are natural causes of population change. The difference between the birth rate and the death rate of a country or place is called the natural increase. The natural increase is calculated by subtracting the death rate from the birth rate.

natural increase = birth rate - death rate

The rate of natural increase is given as a percentage, calculated by dividing the natural increase by 10. For example, if the birth rate is 14 per 1,000 population, and the death rate is 8 per 1000 population, then the natural increase = 14 - 8 = 6. That is ⁶/₁₀₀₀, which is equal to 0.6 per cent.

Patterns of population growth

Rates of population growth vary across the world. Although the world's total population is rising rapidly, not all countries are experiencing this growth. In the UK, for example, population growth is slowing, while in Germany the population has started to decline. MEDCs have low population growth rates, with low death rates and low birth rates.
Population will decline if death rate is greater than birth rate.
Population will increase if death rate is less than birth rate.
LEDCs have high population growth rates. Both birth rates and death rates in LEDCs tend to be high. However, improving healthcare leads to death rates falling - while birth rates remain high.
The table shows data in selected LEDC and MEDC countries. The figures are per 1,000 of the population per year.

MEDCs

Country	Birth rate	Death rate	Natural increase	Population growth rate (%)
UK	11	10	1	0.1
Canada	11	7	4	0.4
Bulgaria	9	14	-5	-0.5

LEDCs

Country	Birth rate	Death rate	Natural increase	Population growth rate (%)
South Africa	25	15	10	1
Botswana	31	22	9	0.9
Zimbabwe	29	20	9	0.9

In Bulgaria, the birth rate is ⁹/_1,000 and death rate is ¹⁴/_1,000. As birth rate is less than the death rate, Bulgaria has a declining population.
In South Africa, the birth rate is ²⁵/_1,000 and death rate is ¹⁵/_1,000. South Africa has an increasing population with a population growth rate of 1 per cent.

Definitions

Population pyramids: Are a way of displaying the age / sex structure of a population. We can analyse it to predict the future and plan accordingly.
Dependency ratios: This is a ratio that compares the percentage of population available for work (15-64) and those economically inactive.
You can work it out: (All children 14 and under plus those aged 65 and over) divided by (number of adults aged 15-64).
The higher the ratio the more potential problems for the future.
Population structures: This is the age/sex balance that exists.
This is very closely linked to the demographic transition model and migration. You could be asked to talk about the population structure of an area and the implications of that structure for the future. In English, what is the percentage of males and females, how old are they and why does it matter.
The usual way to show this is with a population pyramid. This is simply a combination bar graph showing the percentage of males at different ages and the percentage of females at different ages. It can however tell us a lot about a country and its development.

Population pyramids

Pyramid 1: Here the base is very wide indicating a very high birth rate. The width drops off very quickly. This means people must be dying. Very few reach old age. Few countries are still in this stage today but some rainforest populations would display this pattern.
Implications: Clear need for investment into water supplies, health care, food supplies and housing to reduce death rates.

Pyramid 2: Still a large base so high birth rate but also a wider and taller pyramid as more people are living to older ages. This is stage two of the demographic transition model and includes many countries in Africa such as Kenya.
Implication: Probable need to invest in education about family planning to reduce birth rate. Possibly indicates that women are undervalued in society so this could be tackled.

Pyramid 3: Note the more 'domed' shape. It means many people are living to older ages as quality of life improves. There are also proportionately fewer births. This is stage three of the demographic transition model. Chile would be a good example.
Implication: As the population becomes increasingly older there may be a need to invest in facilities and services for them. Still a need for continued investment in family planning.

Pyramid 4: Very small base due to the very low birth rates and death rates displayed in the wide top. This would be representative of Australia that has recently come through stage three of the demographic transition model.
Implication: Should the situation continue there are serious implications about providing for the elderly population (increasing cost of health care, state pensions) especially as the working population becomes proportionally smaller. This is a major concern in much of the developed world.

Population pyramids can also be influenced by:
Migration: Likelihood of extra young males as these are likely to migrate.
Famines: Clear drops in population especially among the very young as these are most likely to suffer.
War: Clear drop off in male populations of fighting age.
Make sure you can read data from a pyramid - try the one in the questions section