Resource use conflicts in the coastal zone : a case study of forestry/recreation conflicts in Howe Sound, British Columbia
Date
1977
Authors
Alley, James Alexander
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Abstract
Resource managers have become increasingly concerned with the special problems of allocating resources with efficiency and equity in the coastal zone. This has arisen due to failures of the traditional allocation mechanisms and shifts in the nature of coastal resource demands. As these, demands increase, many individuals and groups find that their resource use is either mutually exclusive of, or in some degree of incompatibility with, the uses of other, individuals or groups. When traditional allocation mechanisms fail the resulting stress introduced into a system may lead to resource use conflicts.
To improve the resource management and land use planning process, the existing and potential conflicts that give rise to the need for management should be examined. To aid in this direction the thesis offers a conceptual framework of resource use conflict at the local or regional scale. This framework identifies the perceptions and attitudes of different resource consuming groups to conflicting demands as the critical component needed to provide managers with the information with which to formulate policy.
The thesis examines the conflict between recreational boaters and the forest industry that use the resources of Howe Sound, British Columbia. A mail-back questionnaire of the perceptions and attitudes of the recreational boaters was used to gather the data on conflicts. A total of 72 usable questionnaires were returned and this information was supplemented with over 50 informal interviews and numerous site visits.
The boaters' resource demands on Howe Sound are considered in the context of the area's role as an urban recreational hinterland to Greater Vancouver, and in the context of the existing institutional framework of resource allocations. Howe Sound is seen as an area in transition from an economy based on the primary extraction and processing of resources to an economy reflecting important residential and recreational resources uses. The thesis argues that the existing institutional framework has failed to reflect these changing values towards the land and water base.
The data gathered reveal two major conflicts. The first between boaters and the forest industry is generated by pulp mill effluent discharge, logging debris in the water, and restricted access to the foreshore due to log storage. Equally important, however, is an internal conflict amongst recreationists themselves due to overcrowding in favourite destination sites. This overcrowding was a direct result of a lack of moorage opportunities in other areas of the Sound.
The thesis concludes that these conflicts could be reduced or resolved by the existing institutions and that large scale adjustments in the management framework are not required. The thesis also argues that the research approach of utilizing a conceptual framework of conflict and employing a perception and attitude questionnaire will provide/decision makers, managers and planners with a better understanding of resource preferences and demands and will thus lead to more efficient and equitable resource allocations.