Does the Path toward Resilience Go beyond Conservation at Ōkunoshima Island?

抄録

Resilience theory has increasingly been adapted to the literature associated with nature-based tourism, including wildlife tourism. The present study draws on a case of free-ranging rabbits inhabiting Ōkunoshima Island in Hiroshima, Japan. In particular, the study discusses how an alien species became a popular tourist attraction and challenged the existing and widely accepted conservation-based wildlife tourism management by incorporating resilience thinking in the context of social change. Ōkunoshima Island has transformed drastically over the last 70 years. During World War II, it was a military base for producing poisonous gases. In 1960, the island was designated as the National Vacation Village to promote tourism; for decades, it was a recreational and educational site for visitors to learn about the island's wartime history. A major shift in the island's tourism industry occurred in 2015 when its exposure to social media resulted in a growing number of domestic and international tourists. Since then, the island's rabbits have become its primary tourism resource and attraction, attracting not only the largest number of tourists ever but also a fair share of challenges. In addition to the internationalization of tourist profiles, the types of tourists that visit the island has been altered. The growing popularity of rabbit tourism has over-crowded the island. Furthermore, tourists want to feed the rabbits, resulting in the rabbits' dependence on human food handouts and overpopulation. Problems associated with the proliferation of rabbits require the destination's managers to intervene. However, the rabbits' status as an alien species has complicated the decision- making process. In favor of being adaptive to social change, this study argues that the destination management policy needs to rethink the concept of alien species and to look beyond the conventional conservation approach.