Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2015, 12(1), 927-939; doi:10.3390/ijerph120100927
Local Sustainability and Gender Ratio: Evaluating the Impacts of Mining and Tourism on Sustainable Development in Yunnan, China
Ganlin Huang 1,*
and Saleem Ali 2,3
1
State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology (ESPRE), Center for Human-Environment System Sustainability (CHESS), Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
2
Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining (CSRM), Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia
3
Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05401, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Yu-Pin Lin
Received: 14 November 2014 / Accepted: 14 January 2015 / Published: 19 January 2015
Abstract
This study employed rapid evaluation methods to investigate how the leading industries of mining and tourism impact sustainability as manifest through social, economic and environmental dimensions in Yunnan, China. Within the social context, we also consider the differentiated impact on gender ratio—which is a salient feature of sustained development trajectories. Our results indicate that mining areas performed better than tourism areas in economic aspects but fell behind in social development, especially regarding the issue of gender balance. Conclusions on environmental status cannot be drawn due to a lack of data. The results from the environmental indicators are mixed. Our study demonstrates that rapid evaluation using currently available data can provide a means of greater understanding regarding local sustainability and highlights areas that need attention from policy makers, agencies and academia. View Full-TextKeywords:
sustainable development; gender ratio; mining; tourism; China
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).
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Huang, G.; Ali, S. Local Sustainability and Gender Ratio: Evaluating the Impacts of Mining and Tourism on Sustainable Development in Yunnan, China. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2015, 12, 927-939.
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