Study of Effectiveness of Environmental Informal Trainings for Eco-Tour Leaders (Case study: Guilan Province)

In recent years, due to destruction and depletion of the special natural resources and for the prevention of excessive depletions and conservation of the present resources, most of the communities are tended to the training methods which are necessary for sustainable conservation. So, the objective of this study is evaluating environmental considerations in the informal trainings which are provided for eco-tour leaders of Guilan and assessing their conformity with the environmental standards and finally measuring the effectiveness of trainings and their effect on eco-tour leaders. The target population was the eco-tour leaders of Guilan which were 50 people. Initially, a questionnaire was prepared on the base of environmental content of training courses for data collection. The prepared questionnaire was included 30 questions which were related to before and after training courses. Then data were analyzed using the statistical methods. Results showed that the content of training, regarding to the existence of environmental knowledge, is acceptable to some extent, but the most weaknesses of the eco-tour leaders were the less information about the environmental regulations and laws after training courses. Finally, according to the education and age level of eco-tour leaders and prospering presence and participation of women in the field of tourism and training contents, it become possible that more specialized concepts and laws would be presented in the training courses which led the increase of the courses feedback and improving the tourism and ecotourism industry in the short term.