“Selkeh” is the intersection of education and tourism in Gilan

January 24 is the beginning of the National Clean Air Week, and tourism has become a clear feature of the land of rice and rain, Gilan, and today, with the provision of birdwatching capacity in the Selkeh wildlife sanctuary and attracting tourists, this capacity is evidenced by the guardians of the favor of students for birdwatching. And the education of environmental issues has become.

The motto of this year’s Clean Air Week is “realization of clean air, public rights, national will”. In this regard, the will of the environmental protection trustees of Gilan is based on education by presenting programs with the aim of greater social participation, expansion and promotion in reducing air pollution, and is one of the The programs also emphasize the attraction of bird watching as a capacity for tourism, which has become a symbol of this attraction in Gilan today.

Selke Wildlife Sanctuary with an area of ​​360 hectares is located in the southern part of Anzali Lagoon in the area of ​​Soumesara city, Tolmat district and Sufiande village. An area that was added to the areas under the management of the Environmental Protection Organization as a wildlife sanctuary through Resolution No. 63 of the Supreme Environmental Council dated 5/21/1354.

Selkeh in the southern part of Anzali wetland is limited from the north to the wetland, from the south to the edge of the fields of Handehakhale and Sufiande villages, to the west to the Handehakhale river, and to the east to the Tarab Khaleh river.
This protected area hosts migratory birds every year and is one of the valuable wetlands in the north of the country, where birds come to this beautiful wetland every year to lay eggs and reproduce, and the only Anzali wetland environmental education center is located in this area.
Birds are one of the most important indicators of wildlife in the world; There are 533 species of birds in Iran, of which 60% of the country’s birds can be found in Gilan and Amir Kalaye wetlands, Bojag National Park and Anzali International Wetland, especially Selkeh Wildlife Sanctuary, Sarkhangal Wildlife Sanctuary and Black Protected Area. Kashim accounts for the largest amount of this migration.

Migratory birds landing in Seleka

The head of Gilan wetlands protection and restoration department announced: According to surveys conducted at the beginning of January this year, more than 20,000 migratory water birds, including grebe, gray goose, gray pelican, white pelican, black-crested duck, gilar, Filosh, Mallard, Khotka, Broad-billed Duck, Gypsy Rooster, Great Egret have been identified in Selka.
Abbas Ashuri, stating that Selkeh Wildlife Sanctuary is one of the most important habitats for ducks in Iran, added: due to the restoration activities that have been carried out in this wetland in the past years, we have witnessed the presence of diving aquatic species such as We are in danger of global extinction of the mallard duck in this wetland.
Ashuri stated: Most of this population enters the paddy fields and dams of the cities located in the Anzali lagoon watershed at night for feeding, and considering that bird hunting is prohibited this year, any kind of hunting and catching of birds, such as the construction of facades, Installation of aerial nets, hunting with guns, etc. is prohibited due to the lack of issuance of any hunting license, and violators will be dealt with according to the law.

Gilan is one of the most important areas for migratory birds
“Birds connect our world” was the slogan a year ago under the title “Dim the lights at night for the birds”; A slogan that most of all shows the ecological connection of the whole world and reminds that the ecosystems of the world are an intertwined and connected structure and these connections cannot be ignored.

Birds that breed in one continent and spend the winter in another continent after traveling thousands of kilometers; The same ones that can be seen as winter, transit and summer migrants in Iran and our province, and Gilan is one of the most important living and supporting areas for a part of the population of such birds.
When the autumn season comes, the people of Gilan slowly watch the flight of more than 250,000 migratory birds over the sky; Migratory aquatic and coastal birds spend the winter in the area of ​​about 30,000 hectares of Anzali International Wetland, Amir Kalaye Lahijan, Astara Steel, Bojak Kiashahr National Park and other reservoirs of Gilan, and a new season for bird watching begins.
The environment of Gilan is not always a source of bad news such as fires in wetlands and forests, the death of river fish and the Caspian jaw, but sometimes it is the source of good environmental actions, such as the freedom of flamingos, the rescue and release of bears and leopards, which we were happy about. to the beautiful action of Elias – a village man – who, without training and out of philanthropy, saved a strong, injured migrant in the village of Kevisha Khammam, Gilan province, and showed that despite the decline and unkindness of human beings in protecting the environment, it is still possible to Kind and saving hearts made a happy heart and became full of actions instead of beautiful words.
In addition to training; raise our children, make them aware of their environment; Be kind to nature and constantly remind them of kindness to nature; Have we ever told our children to count the trees in the street? To see the flower bushes and feel their fragrance and love the first student of their class? A life built on the run will never be seen; These are the beautiful words of a mother who is a psychologist herself, and on the sidelines of Selke’s birdwatching camp, in addition to the importance of environmental education and gratitude to her child’s school for establishing and providing the process of educational and birdwatching workshops, she said new words.

Education in Selka popular with students

The head of Gilan Environmental Education and People’s Partnership Department said: Education is one of the foundations of environmental protection, and today the Selke bird watching center has become a place for students to learn experience-based environmental education.
In an interview with IRNA reporter, Elaheh Kalantari stated that 100 students have visited this site so far: With the beginning of the migration and wintering and hatching season of birds in the wetlands of the province, the Gilan environmental education centers located in the wildlife sanctuary Selke Soumesara has met with a great reception from students and teachers for bird watching and learning experience-based education with the help of educational tools such as binoculars, telescopes, educational videos, etc. in the beautiful nature of these areas.

The head of Gilan Environmental Education and People’s Partnership Department emphasized that these educational centers are free on all days of the week and with the presence of environmental experts, to provide experience-oriented and practical training as well as bird watching for students in elementary age groups (over 12 year), secondary school (first and second period) and teachers to promote environmental culture and increase awareness and knowledge of this group of effective audience, teachers are asked to complete a part of their environmental education by bringing students to this site .
He also stated: Tourists’ visit to this birdwatching site requires obtaining a permit, and the process of obtaining a permit from the General Department of Environmental Protection of Gilan or the Department of Environmental Protection of the Monastery has been facilitated.

Gilan tourism needs to introduce new destinations

Although industrial tourism is a money-maker, job creator and representative of the country in the world, but the influx of travelers to a tourist destination with the occurrence of factors such as traffic, garbage accumulation, the number of travel tents that give an ugly face to the city and the region, and the disruption of public roads, reduces the enjoyment of tourism. It causes bitterness and dissatisfaction for the citizens.
Unusually, Gilan’s tourism capacity as a prominent travel destination is limited and cannot accommodate tens of millions of tourists at the same time, therefore, according to experts and planners; Travel distribution and management is the need of Gilan tourism in the new era.
Farzad Rashidi, a tourism researcher, consultant for travel destination management development projects and a partner in international tourism projects, said in an interview with IRNA reporter: Destinations such as Gilan and Mazandaran are always at the top of tourist destinations, and sometimes the influx of travelers is much more than the capacity. The facilities of these areas.
He stated: In the discussion of travel management, the distribution of tourists is very important, so new destinations should be introduced in the distribution of travel and tourism; For example, Azerbaijan requires a visa from Iranians to control the arrival of tourists because it has travel destination restrictions, but Turkey is the opposite, not only does it not require visas, but it also tries to attract Iranian tourists by increasing tourist destinations.
The adviser to the Deputy Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts considered the distribution of tourists to be very important in order to prevent the influx of travelers to one or more places and said: Our country and Gilan province should increase the number of tourist destinations so that a more appropriate distribution takes place. Both at the level of the country to reduce the travel pressure on the northern regions and in the northern provinces themselves, new tourist destinations should be introduced so that the travel burden is not concentrated on one or more places.

The importance of migratory birds in the world is so great that two days of the naming of the world calendar in the months of May and October have been allocated to it, and now the glory of the flight of these birds has raised Gilan as one of the three provinces with the largest population of migratory aquatic and coastal birds in Iran. It has a huge capacity for bird watching.
The food-rich wetlands of the province hosted nearly 300,000 migratory birds last year, and this year, Gilan region is expected to host the same number of migratory birds. Simultaneously with the cooling of the air and the limitation of food resources, the migration of birds from the northern latitudes of the planet, including the cold regions of Siberia and Eastern and Western Europe, to the wetlands of Gilan starts from the end of September and these birds stay until the middle or the end of April according to the temperature. They stay in the wetlands of the province and feed on its food sources. Favorable weather conditions, the abundance of needed food and security are among the reasons for the landing of thousands of migratory birds, including; All kinds of ducks, swans, geese, sea swallows and terns and other birds from 81 different species are in the wetlands and reservoirs of Gilan.
Bird watching is a capacity in line with research and tourism, and due to the management of the presence of tourists and better services to them, bird watching in the wetlands of the province is only possible by obtaining a permit. Obtaining a permit is facilitated and easily issued by the General Department of Environmental Protection of Gilan and its agencies in the cities. Scholars are the largest audience for birdwatching in the province, and obtaining a permit not only measures capacity, but also guarantees habitat security.