The Importance of Biodiversity and Natural Attractions in the Development of Ecotourism Case Study: Touran Protected Region

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.

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.

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 touristschr('39') 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

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.