The Conservation and Sustainable Use of Freshwater ... - IUCN

estimate the costs that are inflicted on other social groups
especially the local hunters.
To implement ecotourism, capital costs in the field
(information signs, garbage disposal, and washrooms) and
office (furniture and computer set) were estimated to be
approximately 185,000,000 Rls. that need to be invested in
the beginning of the project. Operational costs consisting
of office personnel (2), field personnel (3), monthly office
charges, transportation, communications, workshops, and
publications were estimated to be 51,670,000 Rls. per
year.
Conclusion and recommendations
It has been shown that in the study area, where the wetland
is the only supplier of the natural goods and serves as
the basic source of income to the local stakeholders
(supply side), there also is a very strong self-incentive for
preservation of the freshwater and its natural resources
(demand side).
The results obtained for one year (t=1) show that total
costs and benefits are not of much different. However, over
a five year period, assuming the target number of visitors
will be 50, 100, 200, 300, and 456 the total benefits of
ecotourism were found to be higher than its costs
(NPV>0), except for the first year. NPV increased after
the second year of investment, reaching 1,101,011,266
Rls. in the final year of the project. It can be concluded
that ecotourism at this site may be used to create additional
incentives for the local trappers to continue to maintain
and protect the damgah.
Based on the results, it was recommended to
conventionalize the community-based approach to
biodiversity conservation through involvement of the
native communities and clarification of their contributions
to utilization of freshwater resources. An integrated
management approach comprising two components of
tourism market development and a community-driven
conservation system is recommended. Such an approach
would be the best policy to reconcile conflicts between
the stakeholders and to optimize resource allocation
and distribution of income among the beneficiaries.
The integrated management system aims to ensure
sustainability of the functioning of the wetland through
combination of three conservation approaches in a time
frame of short and long term as shown below:
• Local traditional trapping method;
• DOE command and control measures; and
• Market-based approach through development of
tourism activities.
Three scenarios were developed to predict the future
situation of the wetland and damgahs. These are listed
below:
A) Business as usual scenario:
If the current trends of utilization of wetland resources
continues the following situation is predicted:
• Legal gun hunting and shooting will continue within the
adjacent Ab-Bandans, and there would be an increasing
threat to Siberian Cranes to be shot accidentally. In that
case an amount of about 1,200,000 Rls/Crane would be
set as the penalty.
• Over-hunting in the adjacent areas (Ab-Bandans) by
illegal hunters, leading to biodiversity loss including
decrease in the number of the bird species.
• Change of land uses within the damgahs, loss of wetland
values, and diminishing of the traditional hunting and
trapping methods.
• Increasing conflicts between different stakeholders
(hunters, trappers, and DOE).
• Instability of damgah systems within the wetland in the
long term.
B) Improving the existing conditions:
The system of damgahs and the local beneficiaries would
be subject to changes as below:
• Increased penalty (up to 10 million Rls).
• Control illegal hunting as well as over-hunting.
• Ban the land uses within the damgahs.
• Licensing system on use of aerial bird traps.
• Regular control of damgahs by DOE.
• In this case the main effects would be increasing
conflicts between different stakeholders (hunters,
trappers, and DOE) and instability of the damgah
systems within the wetland in the long term.
C) Ecotourism development:
This scenario would be a combination of control measures
as mentioned in the other two scenarios together with a
market-based conservation policy, which is expected to
result in the following status:
• Income generation for the local stakeholders
(indigenous people) .
• Income for improvement of the local settlements.
• Incentive for training and research activities.
• Wise use of the wetland resources.
• More cooperation and consensus among the different
beneficiaries.
• Intergenerational transfer of traditional trapping
knowledge.
• Raising public awareness.
• Sustainable system of damgahs.
The latter scenario is considered as the best one to
achieve sustainable wetland conservation. However,
the following recommendations should be adopted to
ensure the sustainability of an effective and efficient
conservation:
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