ARTICLE INFO

Article Type

Original Research

Authors

Behzadnia   M. (1)
Dorbeiki   M. (*2)






(*2) Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Qaem-shahr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qaemshahr, Iran
(1) Department of Environment, Baharan Higher Education Institute, Gorgan, Iran

Correspondence

Address: Qaemshahr Branch of Islamic Azad University, Kilometer 7 of Nezami Road, Qaemshahr, Iran. Postal Code: 4765161964.
Phone: +98 (17) 32323897
Fax: -
mdorbeiki@gmail.com

Article History

Received:  June  21, 2020
Accepted:  July 24, 2021
ePublished:  October 1, 2021

BRIEF TEXT


Tourism and sustainability are inseparable concepts of the protected areas' management to increase the positive impacts of tourism and reduce the consequences.

The estimation of the carrying capacity of Miankaleh sanctuary camps shows that CC in this region is 8 people a day [Tirafkan et al., 2013]. Sheikh et al. (2014) believe the number of visitors who can visit a protected area is 10% of the calculated real carrying capacity. According to the results of research carried out in Sabalan, lack of enough attention to the environmental tolerance of the natural resources against tourism may threaten the sustainability of such resources in a short time [Movahedi et al., 2013]. The results of the ecotourism site evaluation model in the protected areas of Shahrood show the environmental CC is not observed in this region and the ecotourism pressure was beyond the region's tolerance.

This study aimed to estimate the ecotourism carrying capacity in Ashooradeh Island in the easternmost of Miankaleh reservoir.

This is an empirical descriptive study.

The current research is carried out in Ashooradeh Island in Miankale and Gorgan gulf.

There is no sampling method and number reported.

There are no devices and materials reported.

Using the carrying capacity formulas, the proper zones for tourism, the space needed for each tourist, the average needed time, and the number of daily visits, the physical carrying capacity was calculated for each zone (Table 2).For the estimation of the real carrying capacity according to the ecological, social, and managerial features in the region, 12 curtailing factors were detected and assessed (Table3).Accordingly, the real carrying capacity is 3723, 38806, and 42529 people per day for the intensive zone, extensive zone, and the whole area, respectively. Protective and service people in the region are seen as the management adjustment capacity to estimate the effective carrying capacity. Then one forester was suggested for each intensive and extensive zone. According to the detailed plan of Miankaleh reservoir, the number of the foresters of Ashooradeh is one person. The suggested proper number of labor including foresters, service providers, security patrol and camping labor is 6 and 12 people for extensive and intensive zones, respectively.Then FMi= (12-1)/12 ×100=91.66 FMe= (6-1)/6 ×100=83.33 Hence, the effective carrying capacity can be calculated as below: ECCi= 3,723 × (100-91.66)/100= 3,723 ×0.0834 =310 ECCe= 38,806 ×(100-83.33)/100= 38,806 ×0.1667 = 6,468 The final estimation of various types of carrying capacities is shown in Table 4.

There is no comparison reported.

There is no suggestion reported.

There is no limitation reported.

Ashooradeh Island has a good potential for ecotourism but according to the current managerial situation, it is suggested to reduce the number of visitors considering the region's carrying capacity.

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This is an article extracted from a master thesis "Carrying Capacity of Nature-Tourism in Ashooradeh Island in Miankaleh Biosphere Reserve" carried out in Baharan Non-Profit Higher Education on the student his own expense.

TABLES and CHARTS

Show attach file


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