Rural Development Oriented Ecotourism Planning on Catchment Basin Scale: The Case of Pabuçdere and Kazandere Catchment Basins

This study was based on the hypothesis that “Ecotourism is an important instrument in sustainable rural development and ecologically-based landscape planning approaches which take the objectives of socio-economic development and nature conservation have an effective role in this issue”. For this purpose, the necessity of ecologically-based landscape planning approaches in the planning and implementation of ecotourism activities and the importance of the views of related stakeholders in decision-making process have been established in this study. The field of study was grounded on subbasin and micro basin boundaries which take natural thresholds into consideration instead of administrative boundaries which contrast with natural thresholds. A total of 31 micro basins, consisting of 20 basins in the Kazandere basin of a total of 293 km² in the northwest of Turkey and 11 basin in the Pabuçdere basin, have been assessed. A 3-phased method was followed in the study. Firstly, the inventory and data base of the field were created on Geographic Information Systems medium and micro basins were determined. In the second phase, suitability analyses were carried out on the basis of the Ecotourism Opportunity Spectrum (ECOS) according to 6 basic components, 15 assessment factors, and 24 sub-criteria. In the third phase, the micro basins suitable for ecotourism potential were determined by creating a synthesis sheet on the field of study as a result of related analyses and assessments, and ecotourism oriented development strategies were developed by utilizing the rapid rural appraisal conducted in the area and visitor questionnaires as well.