Participatory planning is one strategy to increase tourism suppliers’ capacity to jointly anticipate climate change impacts and implement locally feasible and acceptable solutions; however, participatory planning is uncommon. In this study, we co-created a series of planning workshops with tourism partners to examine and address climate change impacts (challenges and opportunities) on Mount Desert Island, Maine, USA. We co-designed and facilitated two Zoom workshops in spring 2021 for tourism suppliers. Workshops focused on (1) identifying climate change impacts to the tourism system and (2) developing planning priorities for the destination. Workshops resulted in two planning priorities: visitation shifts and the opportunity to become a more sustainable destination in response to climate change. Our participatory approach brought together diverse tourism suppliers that do not usually collaborate to increase the destination’s capacity to plan for and respond to climate change. Similar participatory approaches may benefit other natural resource dependent contexts.
We conducted a spatially explicit vulnerability assessment of the forest industry in Maine, USA, to climate change in an effort to (1) advance a spatial framework for assessing forest industry vulnerability and (2) increase our understanding of Maine’s specific vulnerabilities to climate change in order to guide decision-making. We applied a bottom-up indicator approach to evaluate exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity to climate change using both biophysical and social indicators, largely driven by participatory processes. Our approach enabled us to synthesize and aggregate indicators of regional importance to evaluate vulnerability, allowing us to simultaneously examine combinations of potential changes. We found that each Maine county had its own unique combination of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity indicators, with overall vulnerability highest in the rural northern and western parts of the state, where forest industry activities are most prevalent. However, results also indicate that although increased stress from climate-related changes can negatively affect Maine’s forest via high exposure, reduced sensitivities and increased adaptive capacity have the potential to largely decrease overall vulnerability in many parts of the state.
Lyme disease is the leading tick-borne disease in the USA, with incidences increasing over the past few decades due in part to climate change. Visitors to natural areas involved in nature-based activities are at a heightened risk of Lyme disease exposure. We surveyed 430 visitors in Acadia National Park to understand the personal protective behaviours and associated barriers to adoption, perceived tick-borne disease risk, and travel behaviour. A two-step cluster analysis revealed two visitor segments: adventurists and sightseers. Adventurists were less likely to perform protective behaviours against tick-borne disease, but performing a tick check was the most commonly reported preventative behaviour for both groups (62%). The most commonly cited barriers to performing a tick check were lower perceived risk of tick bites and Lyme disease for both groups. Both groups also reported that the number one barrier to wearing protective clothing was the hot summer weather. This research has implications for tourism managers to design effective communication materials to reduce the risk of tick-borne disease for different visitor segments.
Socioeconomic pressures require forest management to address the impacts of climate change. However, we must ask, Are current forest policies sufficient to deal with the impacts of climate change? Here, we report on two surveys of forest stakeholders in Maine including woodlot owners and forestry professionals and discuss their perceptions of the barriers to climate change adaptation. We conclude with several policy directions including reevaluating existing policies, expanding incentive-based policies, integrating adaptation efforts into mitigation efforts, and increasing communication and outreach.
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