Protected Areas in Azerbaijan: Landscape-Ecological Diversity and Sustainability
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Date
2019
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Publisher
Ankara : Ankara Üniversitesi
Abstract
Establishment of protected areas is one of the most important activities in the conservation of natural resources,
biodiversity and gene pools, including, promoting a healthy lifestyle for people in the world. The concept of preserving
landscape-ecological diversity and sustainable development promotes the improvement of socio-economic indicators and
at the same time ensuring the protection of the environment and ecosystems. The aim of the paper is to examine the
relationship between landscape-ecological diversity in protected areas in Azerbaijan and the factors that contribute to
this relationship with sustainable development. The article identifies landscape-ecological differences, including the
principles and development of protected areas such as National Parks, Nature Reserves and Habitat/Species Management
Areas in Azerbaijan. For the first time, a landscape-ecological frame model was developed to ensure environmental
balance. A medium-scale digital (1: 600,000) "ecological carcass" map of Azerbaijan has been developed and its
structural elements explored. Currently, only 10% of the territory of Azerbaijan are protected areas. Given the
anthropogenic pressure on landscapes in Azerbaijan, it has been established that the structure of the territorial
organization of protected areas does not comply with existing environmental balance norms. To do this, proposals to
increase the area of protected sites to 15% of the country's territory were justified. The current state of use of protected
areas in the development of ecotourism has been considered and evaluated as an element of sustainability. Indicators of
tourism activity in national parks were analyzed on the basis of statistical sources.
Description
Keywords
Protected areas, National park, Ecotourism