Evaluation of Marvar No-Hunting Area to Designate It as a Protected Area

For protection of biodiversity and because of fast destruction of revocable national source which is becoming more challengeable every day, strengthening and expansion of protected area is the only proper way. In Iran, in addition to existence of fourfold conservative area, there are no hunting areas as an example of natural areas. These areas are valuable and prepared for conservation of nature ecological balance and preventing the extinction of plant generation and animal species. This area "with an area of about of 81373 hectare" is located in the West of Meybod and North-East of Sadouq in Yazd Province. In this study, for the first time, the ecological land capability of Marvar, with perception of conservation according to IUCN criteria, was evaluated to be designated as a protected.
Systematic Analysis method, Makhdoum (2001) ecological models and GIS were used for evaluation of Marvar no-hunting area. In this study, at first regional resources (socio-economic & ecological) were found. Digital data along with attribute data were insetted to the ArcGIS system to make the data base. Therefore, by overlaying information layers in the mentioned system, the ecological details were mapped for the area and the table of characteristic unit was presented. The evaluation of capability and zoning were done and fertilized area for suitable uses was selected. Finally, baised on the obtained result for the protected area classification system, the area was introduced as a conservative area according to national and international criteria.
According to the obtained results for ecological and economical-social resource, six zones were identified in this area as wilderness/ecological zone:(4.25%), protected zone:(41.62%), extensive use zone:(26.3%), intensive use zone:(9.4%), spatial use zone:(1.25%) and land use zone:(17.18%), and nearly half of the area was allocate to protection use. The, small extent of this area with high vulnerability shows its capability to be placed in higher conservative class. Hence, evaluation of obtained results under the condition of protected area according to available criteria explain shows that Marvar no-hunting area with approximately broad extent, has a high ecosystem diversity (mountain, plain and hill), considerable species diversity (52 plant and 82 animal species) and also high wildlife values such as economical, biological, and science-training values. Moreower, tourism attractions have high conservative value and can introduce a protected area in classification of fourfold areas of Iran, as well as in fifth class of IUCN, including areas under management of protected landscape or Seascape.