Visitors’ characteristics and attitudes towards Iran’s national parks and participatory conservation

Abstract

The highly diverse climate and nature of Iran offer a potential to use ecotourism as a tool to support conservation and local development. To realize this potential, the ecotourism experience must be identified to guide management actions. This paper examines ecotourists’ attitudes towards conservation and evaluates Iran’s national parks (NPs) economically. 2,121 respondents answered an online questionnaire conducted in summer 2012. The majority of respondents had visited at least one of Iran’s 26 NPs. The survey revealed the weak condition of NPs both in status and conservation activities. Almost all respondents were willing to voluntarily participate in projects related to nature, environment and biodiversity conservation; pay for protection; increase the area of protected areas; visit NPs in the future; and they were mostly young. They believed that the conservation of biodiversity is not only the responsibility of the government but also society in general. Furthermore, most answerers highlighted ecotourism activities as a tool to benefit local people. The paper concludes that the government should elevate environmental awareness and consciousness, build community capacity for biodiversity management, resurrect the conservation movement, promote ecotourism and sustainable investment, strengthen the capacity of NGOs, look for synergisms, and build opportunities for participatory, cooperative science and stewardship.