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Akbarzadeh et al. 2010. Ecotourism and controlling forest stand damages
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Ecotourism and controlling forest stand damages
Case study: Varzegan district North West Iran
M. Akbarzadeh 1* , J. Ajalli 1 & E. Kouhgardi 2
1 Islamic Azad University, Myianeh Branch, East Azarbaijan, Iran.
2 Islamic Azad University, Boushehr Branch, Boushehr, Iran.
Abstract
This paper aim to show using ecotourism how can protection the lands, forest stands and
biodiversity or not In addition to preserving forest ecosystems and biodiversity, natural
protected areas in Arasbaran are homelands for people, largely indigenous, who traditionally
base their resource management on a multiple use strategy. We analyzed land use and land
cover changes in the Varzegan district in the Arasbaran northern west Iran, where Varzegan
recently incorporated ecotourism to their set of economic activities. We evaluated changes in
land use using vegetation maps from 1997 to 2002 based on Enhanced Thematic Mapper
(ETM+), land sat 7 and predicted vegetation cover in 2010 by developing a cellular automata
and Markovian chains model. So we selected 2 parts at study area for controlling of damages
and monitoring of ecotourism effects on it. We used two scenarios to predict land cover in
2010: (a) forest ecosystems and biodiversity implemented at the same rate; (b) forest ecosystem
and biodiversity decreases due to the growing demand of ecotourism. Both scenarios predict
slight change in the area. Our results provide guidelines for managing natural resources
managements, suggesting that forest stand protection, biodiversity conservation and ecotourism
are compatible activities.
Key words: Ecotourism, Biodiversity, Varzegan, Forest stands.
1. Introduction
Remote sensing techniques have recently recived lots of attentions in agriculture and natural
resources. Natural resources and environmental conservation need a lot of attention especially
on under devloped countries. Using remote sensing techniques and sateliate data for evaluation
of environmental changes is rapidly growing.
Ecotourism industry is of importance in land conservation and income. Natural resources,
especially forest ecosystems in Arasbaran have many ancient parameters for ecotourism using.
2. Methodology
2.1 Study area
The study area is located in North West of IRAN and the North Eastern of the East Azerbijan
province, which called Arasbaran, is a mountainous area with elevation between 300 and 2700
meters above the see level and very near to the Caspian Sea.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +98914 406 6696 - Fax: +98 423 22 400 85
Email address: m.akbarzadeh@m_iau.ac.ir
Forest Landscapes and Global Change-New Frontiers in Management, Conservation and Restoration. Proceedings of the IUFRO Landscape Ecology
Working Group International Conference, September 21-27, 2010, Bragança, Portugal. J.C. Azevedo, M. Feliciano, J. Castro & M.A. Pinto (eds.)
2010, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Bragança, Portugal.