title: Exploring the potential impacts of tourism development on social and ecological change in the Solomon Islands.
abstract: Pacific Island communities may be vulnerable to negative impacts of economic development, which is often considered a strategy for reducing vulnerability to environmental change. Studies that evaluate potential impacts of economic development in isolated communities may be inaccurate to only focus on asking people to anticipate impacts of phenomena they have had minimal exposure to. We used an open-ended approach to evaluate how communities in the Solomon Islands perceived change, and used this information to anticipate potential impacts of the government's plans to develop tourism. Our results showed mostly negative expectations of change, particularly socio-cultural, which was perceived as being driven by diminishing social capital, foreign influence, and economic development. Despite minimal exposure, locals supported tourism and had more positive expectations of change associated with this activity. Our findings emphasize the need for locally appropriate planning to ensure intended positive impacts of tourism and other forms of economic development.
authors.affiliation: College of Marine and Environmental Sciences, James Cook University, Building 34, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia. amy.diedrich@jcu.edu.au.|Balearic Islands Ocean and Coastal Observing System, Palma de Mallorca, Spain. amy.diedrich@jcu.edu.au.
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Diedrich
authors.affiliation: Departments of Anthropology and Ichthyology and Fisheries Sciences (DIFS), Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa.
authors.forename: Shankar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aswani
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D003906:Developing Countries / Q000191:economics*; D008542:Melanesia; D011998:Recreation / Q000191:economics*; D012922:Social Change; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
keywords: Economic development; Impacts of change; Melanesia; Perceptions; Social impacts; Solomon Islands; Tourism