An ecotourism model centered on wildlife conservation: a case study of Meighan wetland, Iran

Ecotourism, when combined with careful planning and feasibility assessments of areas in terms of capacity and attention to public demand, can provide an optimal use solution while protecting areas under management. The present study was conducted with the aim of ‘using the Stepwise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) and Taxonomy models to choose the best method for providing an ecotourism model centered on wildlife conservation in the Meighan Desert Wetland (MDW)’. After evaluating and analyzing the most suitable indicators and ranking them using above models, the Delphi method was used to obtain the significant criteria and sub-criteria for ecotourism development by interviewing the foregoing experts and related managers who are thoroughly familiar with this area in all respect. The methods of fuzzy set theory, linguistic value, hierarchical structure analysis, and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) were applied to find the relative weights or importance degree of each criterion and rank the overall criteria as the measurable indices for ecotourism development. The results of SWARA (0.21) and Taxonomy (0.92) showed that creating employment for the region and local communities through ecotourism is the most important factor in preserving the wildlife of the MDW. The study also confirms the benefits of using AHP with GIS for wildlife conservation.