Sustainable Management and Environmental Limitation in Recreational Raft Industry at Cigu Wetland in Taiwan

Abstract

Cigu wetland is one of few well preserved wetlands in Taiwan. It covers 2,997 hectares including the Cigu lagoon. The Cigu lagoon is now a famous eco-tourism site and recreational raft is the key component attracting tourists to enjoy their leisure activities at Cigu wetland and its neighboring communities. The objective of this paper was to address the broader aspects of recreational raft industry at the wetland not only fishery recreation use but in the long term to achieve sustainable management of the wetland. Qualitative analysis has been performed. Content analysis and triangulation have been implemented to achieve consistency results. A SWOT analysis and the NVivo 10 package have been used to discuss in five aspects consisting of law, environmental limitation, recreation satisfaction, resource integration, and ecological sustainability. The obtained results indicate that the law prohibits more than 45 passengers per raft should be modified to accommodate more tourists on a single raft. The depth of raft sightseeing courses is safe only on the southern bay course. It is recommended that all raft courses should be maintained at very safe level all year round. Recreation satisfaction is the main responsibility of the 12 existing rafting companies to hire more professional workforce on ecology interpretation and conservation. All 12 rafting companies should be confined to a union that can be working efficiently. Application of limits of acceptable change should be implemented to pursue ecological sustainability at the Cigu wetland.



Author Information
Lien-Sheng Chou, Taiwan Shoufu University, Taiwan
Ping-Chih Lu, Taiwan Shoufu University, Taiwan
Kuan-Pei Lee, Taiwan Shoufu University, Taiwan

Paper Information
Conference: ACSS2015
Stream: Sustainability

This paper is part of the ACSS2015 Conference Proceedings (View)
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Posted by James Alexander Gordon