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    Institutional limits of sustainability in tourism governance: changing governance rationalities in protected area tourism in Finland
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2025-10-02) Lundén A; Saarinen J; Hall CM
    This study examines the co-evolution of tourism and the administration of Finnish protected areas (PAs), specifically focusing on how administrative legitimacy-seeking influences sustainable tourism governance. Drawing on concepts from new institutional theory, namely isomorphism (organizational convergence), legitimacy-seeking (the pursuit of societal approval), and decoupling (the separation of formal structures from practices), we analyse key policy documents and annual reports from Finnish Parks and Wildlife from 2005 to 2018. The findings of our study reveal a dual shift in PA governance: ‘platformisation,’ where PAs are transformed into state-orchestrated platforms that facilitate the creation of value and legitimacy through the growth of tourism, and ‘corporatization,’ where private sector governance logics are adopted within public administration. These shifts redefine the state's role in commercializing nature, emphasizing economic outputs and regional development mediated by tourism. We observe a decoupling of organizational practices between broader environmental policies and tourism development objectives, driven by the pursuit of legitimacy. Overall, this research contributes to the critical discourse on the evolution of PA governance. It highlights the significance of understanding these institutional constraints in the context of sustainable tourism governance and evaluates the wider environmental policy implications of tourism growth.
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    Expansion of Lifestyle Blocks in Peri-Urban New Zealand: A Review of the Implications for Environmental Management and Landscape Design
    (MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2025-07-11) Xie H; Pearson D; McLaren SJ; Horne D
    Lifestyle blocks (LBs) are small rural holdings primarily used for residential and recreational purposes rather than commercial farming. Despite the rapid expansion of LBs over the last 25 years, which has been driven by lifestyle amenity preference and land subdivision incentives, their environmental performance remains understudied. This is the case even though their proliferation is leading to an irreversible loss of highly productive soils and accelerating land fragmentation in peri-urban areas. Through undertaking a systematic literature review of relevant studies on LBs in New Zealand and comparable international contexts, this paper aims to quantify existing knowledge and suggest future research needs and management strategies. It focuses on the environmental implications of LB activities in relation to water consumption, food production, energy use, and biodiversity protection. The results indicate that variation in land use practices and environmental awareness among LB owners leads to differing environmental outcomes. LBs offer opportunities for biodiversity conservation and small-scale food production through sustainable practices, while also presenting environmental challenges related to resource consumption, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and loss of productive land for commercial agriculture. Targeted landscape design could help mitigate the environmental pressures associated with these properties while enhancing their potential to deliver ecological and sustainability benefits. The review highlights the need for further evaluation of the environmental sustainability of LBs and emphasises the importance of property design and adaptable planning policies and strategies that balance environmental sustainability, land productivity, and lifestyle owners’ aspirations. It underscores the potential for LBs to contribute positively to environmental management while addressing associated challenges, providing valuable insights for ecological conservation and sustainable land use planning.
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    Rural livelihoods and natural resource sustainability : a case study of two communities on Chiloé Island : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Applied Science in Rural Development at Massey University, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2005) Bannister Hepp, Alan
    This research examines the relationship between livelihood strategies of rural communities in Chile and local environmental sustainability. It determines livelihood options adopted by local communities and identifies their impact on the surrounding environment. Two case studies are presented using the sustainable livelihood approach as a framework to describe the livelihood strategies of two rural communities in Chiloé Island. Environmental sustainability is investigated using elements and concepts of the FESLM (Framework for Evaluating Sustainable Land Management) approach and of agroecosystem analysis. Both communities were selected because of their location close to extensive areas of native forests. One community is relatively isolated, has a “Huilliche” ethnic tradition, with a predominance of subsistence activities; the other is closer to markets and their livelihoods are primarily derived from farming-forestry systems. Data for the study was collected from in-depth semi-structured interviews and key informant interviews with local leaders, relevant local government staff, NGOs, and community members. For the examined cases, results suggest that rural subsistence communities are highly diversified, using their resources in a non-sustainable way; generating livelihood strategies that fail to improve their social, economic and environmental conditions. Low productivity soils, steep slopes, and depleted fragile forest ecosystems create a complex natural resource base. The main causes for the community economic problems are the lack of road networks and markets to sell products to. Organisations in charge of development interventions are aware of the situation but find it difficult to start a sustainable development process, mostly due to a lack of human capital in the communities, notably education, organisational skills, and technology adoption. Future development interventions should tackle the issues that constrain development in these communities, consider rural communities’ context-specific characteristics, value local culture and tradition, facilitate to build social and human capital, ensure integrated management of natural resources, and assist with markets for existing and value-added products produced by local households.
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    Investigating the theoretical constructs of a green lean six sigma approach towards environmental sustainability: A systematic literature review and future directions
    (MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 7/10/2020) Farrukh A; Mathrani S; Taskin N
    Green lean six sigma (GLSS) is an emerging approach towards environmental sustainability in conjunction with operational achievements. The success of this approach is premised on an understanding of the different components of a GLSS program; being the determinants for its outcomes. The aim of this paper is to investigate the various constructs of GLSS that play an essential role in achieving environmental sustainability. For this purpose, a systematic review of available literature has been conducted to evaluate the drivers, enablers (tools), and outcomes of a GLSS strategy as well as its critical success factors and barriers. Findings reveal that these constructs of GLSS as a holistic approach can facilitate an organization to better accomplish environmental objectives such as waste minimization, emission reduction, and resource conservation as compared to constructs of only one or any two of these strategies. Based on the analysis, an integrated GLSS framework is developed for environmental sustainability in addition to identifying vital research gaps and future directions.