Tez özetleri Astronomi ve Uzay Bilimleri Anabilim Dalı 2

The Use of Forest Resources for the Purpose of Ecotourism
Tourism sector develops together with increased tourist number day by day. Tourism is an important sector for developing countries because of providing income and employment. Due to this importance of tourism, countries have been making their effort and activities more effective about this issue to improve their facilities and increase the number of tourists. On the other hand, development of mass tourism causes negative effects on natural resources in many region of the world.

The pressure on natural resources including allocation of forest areas for building tourist facilities, the settlement pressure, increased demand for infrastructure and energy and environmental pollution has reached to a significant level with beginning of the implementation. As a result of concerns about the environmental issues due to the mass tourism in natural areas, new tourism types have appeared and the ecotourism is the leading example of these types. Eco-tourism is an important tourism type in terms of protecting nature, informing and educating people and rural development in forest environments. Ecotourism generally takes place in natural areas, protected areas are the most and first preferred places for this tourism type. There is a high demand for ecotourism in the protecting areas where biodiversities are very high, have national and international importance for their unique ecosystems and habitats, landscapes, historical background and cultural characteristics.

The main aim of this study are to provide the main principles for using the forest resources for the purpose of ecotourism, to examine ecotourism in Europe and to evaluate applications in Turkey and make suggestions and recommendations in order to reduce damages originated from mass tourism on forest resources.

In the context of the study the general principles and basic concepts related to ecotourism taking place in protected areas will be introduced, and ecotourism activites in European countries will be examined. Additionally, approaches to ecotourism in Turkey were compared those applied in Spain, Italy, France, Germany and England and interviews were made with ecotourism experts working at Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs, General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks in Turkey. Finally, information about ecotourism and related applications were evaluated based on expert interviews for ecotourism in Turkey.

After examining the sample areas in European countries, it has been seen that the European countries put emphasis on park officers, visitor centers, and nature education. In these parks; the visitor centers have been specified as the first point where the people coming to the park make a brief visit. All the activities, education programs and the tours with guide are arranged from these centers. This way, the information of incoming visitors can be obtained with reliable records. Also, the exhibition areas reside in most of these visitor centers and the presentations are made to the visitors. Education related to the resource properties of this park is provided for children, youngsters, families and local community. Moreover, owing to the fact that the arrangement has been made for the handicapped in some of the locations in the area, they can come to the national parks. Especially, not only the ways which are able to provide enough area for wheelchairs but also the information boards which can be read by the visually handicapped are some of the arrangements standing out.

However, after examining the general situation in our country, it can be understood that the steps related to ecotourism have started to recently. Presenting the initiatives connected with making an ecotourism plan in the national parks for the first time, beginning to designate the bearing capacity in the national parks, keeping visitor statistics orderly are important steps. In the meantime, education and informing studies are not comprehensive as the examples referred before, inconveniences in the input/output control of the areas, deficiencies in the planning studies, increasing usage oppression in the protected areas especially containing mining and tourism, inadequacy of personnel equipment become prominent as standing out problems.

During the process of ecotourism activities, it is very important to get information about attributes and usage characteristics of forest resources and problems met. This study will provide knowledge to planners and managers for making management plans for ecotourism and add new information to literature by examining recent developments and concepts in ecotourism in Europe and comparing those applications with those carried out in Turkey.