@2024 Afarand., IRAN
ISSN: 2538-4384 Geographical Researches 2020;35(2):141-153
ISSN: 2538-4384 Geographical Researches 2020;35(2):141-153
Importance of Biodiversity and Natural Attractions in the Development of Ecotourism; Case Study of Touran Protected Region
ARTICLE INFO
Article Type
Original ResearchAuthors
Behravesh M. (1)Poorhashemi SA (*2)
Panahi M. (3)
Parvin MR (4)
(*2) Department of Environmental Law, Faculty of Natural Resources and Environment, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
(1) Department of Environmental Law, Faculty of Natural Resources and Environment, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
(3) Department of Environmental Economy, Faculty of Natural Resources and Environment, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
(4) Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute of Iran (ABRII), Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran
Correspondence
Address: Science and Research Branch of Islamic Azad University, Shohadae Hesarak Boulevard, Danshgah Square, End of Shahid Sattari Highway, Tehran, Iran. Postal Code: 1477893855Phone: +98 (21) 88253582
Fax: +98 (21) 88252213
ahashemy@yahoo.com
Article History
Received: March 24, 2020Accepted: June 4, 2020
ePublished: June 5, 2020
ABSTRACT
Aims & Backgrounds
This study aims to identify the importance of biodiversity in the development of ecotourism in Khar Turan National Park or Touran Wildlife Refuge in Iran.
Methodology This is an analytical survey. First, the map of the most vital habitats in the study area was prepared through locating the land points in GPS using GIS, The study used Landsat 7 (ETM+) data (updated in 2010). For this purpose, Arc GIS software, Version9.2 was used. A modified questionnaire was used to record users’ opinions and the importance of natural attractions in terms of biodiversity. The sampling method is a cluster random technique with 764 samples. Exploratory factor analysis is used to analyze the data.
Findings The southern and eastern parts of the study area are desert (with 57%). Rangelands and plains, mainly in middle parts, cover 40% of the region. Moreover, there are 3 mountains (3%) in the northern part. There are 16 protected species in the list of biodiversity of this region. From the tourists' point of view, the most important attractions related to wildlife are hunting, sport, recreation, education, and research and economic benefits, respectively, gun hunting has the biggest weight (with 0.75) followed by equestrian-related attractions (with 0.63), and animal-watching attractions (with 0.59), while economic benefits and drawing attractions carried very little weight, with 0.14 and 0.18, respectively
Conclusion The study area has great potential for ecotourism. However, due to the high tendency of tourists to commit environmental violations and the low awareness of them and the local community about the consequences of environmental crimes, it is needed to apply management principles including education, planning, and making environmental laws.
Methodology This is an analytical survey. First, the map of the most vital habitats in the study area was prepared through locating the land points in GPS using GIS, The study used Landsat 7 (ETM+) data (updated in 2010). For this purpose, Arc GIS software, Version9.2 was used. A modified questionnaire was used to record users’ opinions and the importance of natural attractions in terms of biodiversity. The sampling method is a cluster random technique with 764 samples. Exploratory factor analysis is used to analyze the data.
Findings The southern and eastern parts of the study area are desert (with 57%). Rangelands and plains, mainly in middle parts, cover 40% of the region. Moreover, there are 3 mountains (3%) in the northern part. There are 16 protected species in the list of biodiversity of this region. From the tourists' point of view, the most important attractions related to wildlife are hunting, sport, recreation, education, and research and economic benefits, respectively, gun hunting has the biggest weight (with 0.75) followed by equestrian-related attractions (with 0.63), and animal-watching attractions (with 0.59), while economic benefits and drawing attractions carried very little weight, with 0.14 and 0.18, respectively
Conclusion The study area has great potential for ecotourism. However, due to the high tendency of tourists to commit environmental violations and the low awareness of them and the local community about the consequences of environmental crimes, it is needed to apply management principles including education, planning, and making environmental laws.
CITATION LINKS
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[5]Bluwstein J (2017). Creating ecotourism territories: Environmentalities in Tanzania’s community-based conservation. Geoforum. 83:101-113.
[6]Cochran JC, Lynch MJ, Toman EL, Rayan TS (2016). Court sentencing patterns for environmental crimes: Is there a “Green” gap in punishment?. Journal of Quantitative Criminology. 34:37–66.
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[10]Forootani F, Homaysalehi K (2018). Tourism planning for Dezful county Wild life. Geographic Space Journal. 18(62):31-44. [Persian]
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[14]Knight RL, Gutzwiller KJ, editors (1995). Wildlife and recreationists: Coexistence through management and research. 2nd ed. Washington, D.C: Island Press:
[15]Laghai H, Moharamnejad N, Bahmanpour H (2012). An overlook to Houbara Bustard (Chlamydotis undulata) status in center of Iran case study: Shahrood county. European Journal of Experimental Biology. 2(4):1337-1345. [Persian]
[16]Ling-en W, Linsheng ZH, Yangjian ZH, Bin ZH (2014). Ecotourism environmental protection measures and their effects on protected areas in China. Sustainability. 6(10):6781-6798.
[17]Liu AM, Lau WS, Fellows R (2012). The contributions of environmental management systems towards project outcome: Case studies in Hong Kong. Architectural Engineering and Design Management. 8(3):160-169.
[18]Mahdi A, Karimi D, Farshchi P, Panahi M (2020). Presentation of a model of site assessment and ecotourism planning in protected areas with an ecological carrying capacity approach. Geographical Researches. 35 (1). [Persian]
[19]Mirkamali A, Hajivand A (2017). Analyzing the prevention of environmental crimes in the light of the united nations guidelines based on the ethical principle of prevention of harm. Bioethics Journal. 7(26):61-75. [Persian]
[20]Moradi A, Danehkar A, Alizadeh A (2012). Exploring the conceptual framework for wildlife tourism. Proceedings of the 1st National Conference on Tourism and Nature Tourism of Iran. 2013, 7 March: Hamedan. pp.1-7. [Persian]
[21]Nejat SA, Dabiri F (2012). Management and legal challenges of protected areas of Zanjan province. Journal of Environmental Studies. 38(2):55-68. [Persian]
[22]Orams MB (1996). A conceptual model of tourist-wildlife interaction: The case of education as a management strategy. Australian Geographer. 27(1):39-51.
[23]Santos Lobo HA (2013). Establishing the social tourism carrying capacity for the tourist resorts of the east coast of the Republic of Cyprus. Tourist Management. 21(2):147–156.
[24]The Science and Environmental Health Network [Internet]. The International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School, Modeles for Protecting the Environment for future Generations. [Published 2008, 15 October]. United States: SEHN Publications. Available From: http://www.sehn.org
[25]Sukserm TH, Thiengkamol N, Thiengkamol T (2012). Development of the ecotourism managment model for forest Park. The Social Sciences. 7(1):95-99.
[26]Taheri Hosseinabadi M, Tayebi Sani SM, Fahiminejad A, Bahmanpour H (2019). Carrying capacity determine of the sports and recreational of the natural areas in line with sustainable planning case study: The mountainous of Darakeh). Journal of Tourism and Development. 8(4):82-98. [Persian]
[27]Thampi SP (2005). Ecotourism in Kerala, India: Lessons from the eco-development project in Periyar Tiger reserve. International Ecotourism Monthly. 3(6).
[28]International Workshop on Tourism Statistics (2006). United Nations World Tourism Organization. 2006, 17-20 July: Madrid.
[29]Zambrano AMA, Broadbent EN, Durham VH (2010). Social and environmental effects of ecotourism in the osa Peninsula of costa Rica: The Lapa Rios case. Journal of Ecotourism. 9(1):62-83.
[2]Arsic S, Nikolić D, Živković Z (2017). Hybrid SWOT – ANP – FANP model for prioritization strategies of sustainable development of ecotourism n National Park Djerdap, Serbia. Forest Policy and Economics. 80:11-26.
[3]Azadbakht N, Nazari H (2012). Look at biology, threats and remedies for protecting of Neurergus Kaiseri, Department of Natural Resources Lorestan Province. National Conference on Environmental Protection and Planning. 2013, 21 February: Hamedan. pp. 1-11. [Persian]
[4]Bahmanpour H, Laghai H, Moharamnejad N (2012). Identifying environmental potential and natural attraction for ecotourism development from user viewpoint. European Journal of Experimental Biology. 10 (3):616-622. [Persian]
[5]Bluwstein J (2017). Creating ecotourism territories: Environmentalities in Tanzania’s community-based conservation. Geoforum. 83:101-113.
[6]Cochran JC, Lynch MJ, Toman EL, Rayan TS (2016). Court sentencing patterns for environmental crimes: Is there a “Green” gap in punishment?. Journal of Quantitative Criminology. 34:37–66.
[7]Di Ronco A, Allen‐Robertson J, South N (2018). Representing environmental harm and resistance on Twitter: The case of the TAP pipeline in Italy. Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal. 15(1).
[8]Eusebio C, Carneiro MJ, Kastenholz E, Figueiredo E, Da Silva DS (2017). Who is consuming the countryside? an activity-based segmentation analysis of the domestic rural tourism market in Portugal. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management. 31:197-210.
[9]Fardin M, Milani AR, Beyranvand M, Matin Rasekh M (2020). Comparative study of the responsibility of human geography (environmental) pollutants for deaths due to pollution caused by them in Iranian law and international documents. New Attitudes in Human Geography. 12 (2): 295-319. [Persian]
[10]Forootani F, Homaysalehi K (2018). Tourism planning for Dezful county Wild life. Geographic Space Journal. 18(62):31-44. [Persian]
[11]Hajivand A, Mirkamali A, Safari F, Sarvai Sarmidani O (2018). Government criminal responsibility for environmental crimes in Iran: Necessities and challenges. Environmental Sciences. 16(2):65-82. [Persian]
[12]International Union for Conservation of Nature [Internet] The IUCN red list of threatened species, Version 2020-1. [Cited 2020, 18 June]. Available From: https://www.iucnredlist.org
[13]Munro J, Moore S, Allison H (2010). Using resilience concepts to investigate the impacts of protected area tourism on communities. Annals of Tourism Research. 37(2):499–519.
[14]Knight RL, Gutzwiller KJ, editors (1995). Wildlife and recreationists: Coexistence through management and research. 2nd ed. Washington, D.C: Island Press:
[15]Laghai H, Moharamnejad N, Bahmanpour H (2012). An overlook to Houbara Bustard (Chlamydotis undulata) status in center of Iran case study: Shahrood county. European Journal of Experimental Biology. 2(4):1337-1345. [Persian]
[16]Ling-en W, Linsheng ZH, Yangjian ZH, Bin ZH (2014). Ecotourism environmental protection measures and their effects on protected areas in China. Sustainability. 6(10):6781-6798.
[17]Liu AM, Lau WS, Fellows R (2012). The contributions of environmental management systems towards project outcome: Case studies in Hong Kong. Architectural Engineering and Design Management. 8(3):160-169.
[18]Mahdi A, Karimi D, Farshchi P, Panahi M (2020). Presentation of a model of site assessment and ecotourism planning in protected areas with an ecological carrying capacity approach. Geographical Researches. 35 (1). [Persian]
[19]Mirkamali A, Hajivand A (2017). Analyzing the prevention of environmental crimes in the light of the united nations guidelines based on the ethical principle of prevention of harm. Bioethics Journal. 7(26):61-75. [Persian]
[20]Moradi A, Danehkar A, Alizadeh A (2012). Exploring the conceptual framework for wildlife tourism. Proceedings of the 1st National Conference on Tourism and Nature Tourism of Iran. 2013, 7 March: Hamedan. pp.1-7. [Persian]
[21]Nejat SA, Dabiri F (2012). Management and legal challenges of protected areas of Zanjan province. Journal of Environmental Studies. 38(2):55-68. [Persian]
[22]Orams MB (1996). A conceptual model of tourist-wildlife interaction: The case of education as a management strategy. Australian Geographer. 27(1):39-51.
[23]Santos Lobo HA (2013). Establishing the social tourism carrying capacity for the tourist resorts of the east coast of the Republic of Cyprus. Tourist Management. 21(2):147–156.
[24]The Science and Environmental Health Network [Internet]. The International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School, Modeles for Protecting the Environment for future Generations. [Published 2008, 15 October]. United States: SEHN Publications. Available From: http://www.sehn.org
[25]Sukserm TH, Thiengkamol N, Thiengkamol T (2012). Development of the ecotourism managment model for forest Park. The Social Sciences. 7(1):95-99.
[26]Taheri Hosseinabadi M, Tayebi Sani SM, Fahiminejad A, Bahmanpour H (2019). Carrying capacity determine of the sports and recreational of the natural areas in line with sustainable planning case study: The mountainous of Darakeh). Journal of Tourism and Development. 8(4):82-98. [Persian]
[27]Thampi SP (2005). Ecotourism in Kerala, India: Lessons from the eco-development project in Periyar Tiger reserve. International Ecotourism Monthly. 3(6).
[28]International Workshop on Tourism Statistics (2006). United Nations World Tourism Organization. 2006, 17-20 July: Madrid.
[29]Zambrano AMA, Broadbent EN, Durham VH (2010). Social and environmental effects of ecotourism in the osa Peninsula of costa Rica: The Lapa Rios case. Journal of Ecotourism. 9(1):62-83.