Environmental Impacts Assessment of Ecotourism Development in Wetland of Tiab

Abstract

This study was conducted on the Minab-Tiab Wetland in Hormozgan province to evaluate the impacts of nature tourism on different components of the wetland. The study used a modified RIAM method and sustainable development model to evaluate four environments of the wetland, including physicochemical, biological-ecological, sociological-cultural, and economic-operational components. The results showed that nature tourism would have a slight negative impact on the physicochemical environment and a moderate negative impact on the biological-ecological environment. On the other hand, it would have a major positive impact on the sociological-cultural and economic-operational environments. However, the study also revealed that the physicochemical and biological-ecological environments were not very stable, while the sociological-cultural and economic-operational environments were highly stable. In Minab-Tiab Wetland, nature tourism is associated with positive effects on the sociological-cultural and economic-operational components of the environment, but it can also have a negative impact on environmental sustainability.

Keywords

• ecotourism
• environmental impacts
• tiab wetland
• riam model
• sustainable development