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The border of nature and ruin; when tourism leads to destruction

Saeed Karimi, a faculty member at the University of Tehran and former director-general of the Environmental Assessment Office of the country's Environmental Protection Organization, says the main problem is "the intensity and density of human presence as tourists," and says nature has a limited capacity to absorb tourists, and this capacity is not the same in different areas.

"Forest areas, wetlands, habitats, and mountain areas have different capacities. Tourism pressure is not limited only to the number of people, and car movement, camp creation, soil compaction, vegetation destruction, garbage generation, water and soil pollution, lighting fires, and noise creation all together affect the environment."

Karimi emphasizes: "Nature tourism is not a problem in itself, but the problem arises when tourism is carried out without measuring capacity. Each area must be studied and managed according to its conditions and in accordance with carrying capacity, habitat sensitivity, and biological seasons."