By: Elsa Sim Rui Jia
Kiel University, Germany & HuFoSS, Roosendaal, the Netherlands
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Herman Hummel
July 2024, MSc. Environmental Management Research Paper, 39 pp.
It is often suggested that island communities (“islanders”) may have a mindset and viewpoints that are distinct from mainland communities (“mainlanders”) due to a different dependency on natural resources and a cultural identity shaped by unique geographic locations. On basis of the stakeholder engagement activities in the EU Horizon projects Marine SABRES and MARBEFES we have analysed whether stakeholders from the mainland and those from islands indeed differ in their perception on what is important in their natural, social and economic environment.
Among the important aspects mentioned by stakeholders, the relation between “large-scale tourism” and “economy” was particularly emphasised. Whilst important for both mainlanders andislanders, the impact of large-scale tourism on the economy was significantly more important for islanders than mainlanders.
Moreover, with regards to importance of different levels of governance in their communities, islanders and mainlanders tended to have distinct opinions. Islanders perceive local governance as far more important than national and international governance and also credit higher importance to local governance as compared to mainlanders (Figure 1). See here the report.