Relationships between community as an ecomuseum and sustainable community development: lessons from Tainan, Taiwan

Abstract

Increasingly serious environmental degradation has given new emphasis to the need for sustainable development. Such development take the community acts as the basic unit for holistic implementation. One emerging development approach is referred to as the “eco-museum” strategy which seeks to strengthen a community based on its unique resources, create economic benefits, and protect local heritage. This study describes the application of the eco-museum strategy to 36 communities in Tainan, Taiwan, in an attempt to identify elements of best practice and to develop a model for other the development of eco-museums in other communities. In a multidimensional scaling analysis, the study uses landscape, culture, lifestyle, and human resources as items to build the research framework. A questionnaire was applied to survey 36 communities in Tainan to identify community characteristics which lend themselves to the successful implementation of the eco-museum approach. The results suggested that the Chi-Chih community could serve as a model for ecomuseum development. Through cognitive map analysis, the distribution points of each community type are found to impact development feasibility and controls. It is expected that the eco-museum strategy will increase local residents’ interaction with their distinct cultural and environmental resources, and facilitate the development a “think globally, act locally” Mindset.