ROLE OF ECOTOURISM IN PROMOTING AND SUSTAINING CONSERVATION OF NATURE: A CASE STUDY OF MURREE FOREST RECREATIONAL RESORT

Murree is a thrilling hill resort of Pakistan that lies approximately between 33° to 34° North latitude and 72° 42’ to 73° 30’ East longitude. The elevation of the area ranges from 600m to 2100 m from sea level. More than 1000 visitors pay their visit to this hill resort daily. It is situated about 65km North of Islamabad. This area is geographically known as “Foot hill of Himalayas”. Murree is very important location due to its forest cover mainly comprising of Chir pine and Blue pine forests; that not only provide timber, fuel wood, and other non-timber benefits to community but also serve as watershed area and a magnificent picnic spot. Eco-tourism is a multimillion enterprise in Murree. More than one million tourists visit Murree each year. The population of Murree grows up 10 times more than the local population during the hot summer spell in the country and winter season during snow fall. Most of the local people are associated directly or indirectly to this industry. In true sense, Ecotourism plays a vital role in the improvement of socioeconomic conditions of the local community. To find out the role of ecotourism and public preferences towards interest of nature conservation, a survey of visitors was conducted; using a structured questionnaire in three most busy locations, The Mall, Patriata and Bhurban. The reported onsite experiences of respondents were analyzed to identify important factors that motivated them to visit the site and had effect on their conservation attitudes and to assess the visitor’s behavior towards forest based ecotourism and analyzed their preferences regarding “quality ranking” as a recreational spot and possible improvements for further recreational development without damaging the habitat. From a total samples of 180 respondents, 52.78 % preferred Muree Hill resort for the enjoyment from the view point of forests flora and fauna and natural beauty, 32.78% responded for general environment, 2.22% for near distance location and 5% did not specify any particular reason for their visit. There is significant relationship between the specific objective “to enjoy scenery and forests” and their first time visit or yearly visit to the forest area. The results of F-distribution at 95 % confidence interval showed significant relationship between specific objective “to enhance knowledge” and their first time visit or the yearly visit to the forest area. The enhanced knowledge about the environment and of forests causes awareness among visitors for the conservation of nature along with tourism development.