Tourism and nature conservation: A case study in Golestan National Park, Iran

Abstract

This paper addresses the role of ecotourism in promoting biodiversity conservation in Golestan National Park (GNP), located in northeastern Iran. Three communities living close to GNP were selected as a case study. A questionnaire survey to local residents revealed that most respondents (80%) have economic benefits from the national park. However, there is also a significant proportion of individuals (35%), mainly farmers, who experience economic losses from living near GNP. Around 58% of the respondents reveal to have benefits from tourism. The results show an inverse relation between having benefits from tourism and bearing losses as consequence of living near the national park. This reveals that the role of tourism in the conservation of GNP is undermined by the fact that residents with high losses from the park get little benefits from tourism.