Developing sustainable island tourism must be thoroughly evaluated in consideration of ecological, economic, and social factors on account of the fragility of island ecosystems. This study evaluated the ecological footprint (EF) and ecological capacity of Liuqiu Island from 2010 to 2015 using the EF model, establishing an indicator to estimate the value of ecosystem service and eco-security. The empirical results include: (1) the overall value of ecosystem service on Liuqiu Island increased from US$3.75 million in 2010 to US$5.11 million in 2015; (2) the total per capita EF considerably increased from 0.5640 gha/person in 2010 to 4.0845 gha/person in 2015; and (3) the ecological footprint index increased from 0.30 in 2010 to 2.28 in 2015. These findings indicate that island tourism recreational zones gradually increased the pressure on its ecosystem, reduced the eco-security level, and severely damaged the environment, thereby threatening the function and structure of the entire ecosystem. The innovations and contributions of this study is integrating ecological footprint and ecosystem services valuation provide insights into sustainability of an island. The theoretical and practical implications identified in this study should contribute to reducing the gap between research and practice. Full article

Understanding residents’ attitudes is critical for successfully developing cultural tourism in aboriginal protected areas. This study developed an integration model combining two theories to identify the key determinants of indigenous residents’ attitudes toward cultural tourism development. Social exchange theory stresses the impact of the benefits derived from tourism on indigenous residents’ attitudes toward tourism development. Social capital theory embeds clear rationales for strengthening the internalization process of the formation of residents’ shared values and understanding, enabling them to trust each other and thus support tourism development. The present study was conducted within two indigenous communities in Eastern Taiwan. The results revealed that cultural tourism benefits and structural and relational capital effectively predict indigenous residents’ attitudes toward tourism development; structural capital plays a critical mediating role in the relationship between tourism benefits and residents’ attitudes. The managerial implications provide recommendations for aboriginal community developers or practical sectors to avoid problems or costs caused by tourism development when promoting cultural tourism activities within indigenous communities. Full article

Gaomei wetlands are national Taiwanese coastal wetlands. Over the past few years, they have grown into an important water bird habitat and popular bird-watching location. However, the rapid growth in tourism has begun to affect the environmental quality in the Gaomei wetlands. This study combined ecosystem services (ES) and ecological footprint (EF) assessments to evaluate the sustainability status according to the features of each ecosystem service for the different Gaomei wetlands land uses. The results found that (a) the total Gaomei wetlands ecosystem service value increased from 59.24 million TWD in 2008 to 98.10 million TWD in 2015, and the ecosystem service function was continuously improving; (b) the EF increased by 56.12% over 8 years; and (c) there was a negative growth rate of 106.54% in the ecological deficit (ED) in the sustainable ecological evaluation indicators (SEEI). The ecological footprint index (EFI) in 2015 was at Level 4 at 1.02, and the environmental sustainability index (ESI) was at Level 3 at 0.49. Results show that Gaomei wetlands have a low sustainability; therefore, the local, regional, and national governments need to implement regulations to strictly control the Gaomei wetlands land use. This study demonstrated that ES and EF theory application can give an objective guidance to decision-makers to ensure that wetlands eco-security can be maintained at safe levels. Full article

In this paper, the overall ecological and environmental sustainability in the Cing-Jing region in Taiwan is examined. As land use and cover change has been found to be an important analysis method, an emergy ecological footprint model was applied and the eco-security assessed to ensure authorities maintain a balance between ecological preservation and tourism development. While the ecological environment in the Cing-Jing region from 2008 to 2014 was found to be within safe levels, all related indices had increased considerably. A Grey model was used to predict the 2015–2024 ecological carrying capacities, from which it was found that there is expected to be a large increase in per capita ecological footprints (EFs), meaning that in the future there is going to be a larger ecological deficit and a higher ecological pressure index (EFI), with the eco-security predicted to reach a Grade 2 intermediate level in 2022. As the Cing-Jing region is predicted to become ecologically unsustainable, local, regional, and national governments need to implement regulations to strictly control the land use in the Cing-Jing region. This study demonstrated that emergy EF (EEF) theory application can give objective guidance to decision-makers to ensure that recreational non-urban eco-security can be maintained at a safe level. Full article

There is rich biodiversity and biomass in wetlands and these areas are important in ecosystems. Assessment of the environment of wetlands is critical in the management of pivotal ecosystems. The energy ecological footprint (EEF) is an improved form of the ecological footprint method based on the theory of energy value. EEF can be a useful tool for comparing and monitoring environmental impacts. EEF was used to investigate a national coastal wetland in Taiwan; i.e., Gaomei Wetlands. We created a wetland ecosystem evaluation model to quantify the EEF, ecological safety of the GaomeiWetlands, and energy ecological carrying capacity to assess the current environmental situation of the area between 2007 and 2013. The research results provide a reference for environmental policy execution, strategy, and planning and suggestions for sustainable development of the Gaomei Wetlands. Our study showed that the per capita ecological carrying capacity of the Gaomei Wetlands experienced fluctuations during the time of the study. However, the per capita EF had substantial growth. The per capita ecological carrying capacity of the Gaomei Wetlands was influenced by the EFs of the fossil energy land, meadows, and croplands. Full article

The Hsinchu Science Park was established in Taiwan in the 1980s, replacing traditional industries with high value-added and technology-intensive industries. Taiwan has become one of the Newly-Industrialized Economies (NIEs). However, the continued expansion of high-tech enterprises in science parks requires large amounts of resources to be consumed, deteriorating the quality of the environment, for which society must pay a high cost. In this study, the input-output model was used to explore the water footprints of the Hsinchu Science Park. The study results revealed that among the six industries at the Hsinchu Science Park, the integrated circuit industry (whether in 2001, 2004, or 2006) had the lowest total water consumption per unit of output. From a water footprint perspective, compared with the other industries of the science park, the development of the integrated circuit industry has had a lower impact on the environment. Furthermore, the integrated circuit industry, precision machinery industry, and biotechnology industry have become increasingly dependent on foreign water resources to alleviate the water shortage in Taiwan. In contrast to previous studies on water consumption, this study incorporated indirect water usage into the analysis; thus, a comprehensive view of the water consumption of each industry was analyzed from a broad perspective. Full article

Kinmen National Park is the only battle memorial-themed natural resource conservation park in Taiwan. With the rapid growth in tourism, Kinmen National Park faces the challenge of managing with the resulting environmental impact. For this study, we adopted the tourism ecological footprint (TEF) and tourism ecological capacity (TEC) to evaluate the ecological conditions of Kinmen National Park from 2002 to 2011. The empirical results indicated the following findings: (a) TEF increased by 8.03% over 10 years; (b) Regarding the environmental sustainability index (ESI), per capita tourism ecological deficit (PTED) yielded a deficit growth rate of 45.37%. In 2011, the ecological footprint index (EFI) was at Level 4 with 1.16, and the ESI was at Level 3 with 0.495. According to the aforementioned results, with the increased scale of tourism to Kinmen National Park, the pressure that ecological occupancy exerted on the national ecosystem exceeded its ecological capacity. Full article