Investigating the awareness of the local community towards the development of ecotourism is very important and necessary for future planning. Ecotourism in any region affects the lifestyle of local people and their economic-cultural conditions. On the other hand, ecotourists are also influenced by the culture of the host society and its values. Therefore, this study examines the local community's awareness of supporting ecotourism development in Damavand City. Due to the preservation of unique biological diversity, climatic conditions, and the frequent visits of tourists and ecotourists to this region, the local community needs to know about ecotourism, which made this research necessary. The target community of this study is the local community of residents of Damavand city. Therefore, using Cochran's formula, the sample size was estimated to be 384 people. The data was collected through a researcher-made questionnaire, which was used to determine its validity, in addition to seeking opinions from experts (face validity), convergent validity was used. To calculate its reliability, Cronbach's alpha method and composite reliability were used. The results of the inferential statistics that were conducted using confirmatory factor analysis (Smart PLS software) showed that the four components of the research (local community awareness, economic poverty, cultural poverty, and ecotourism development) have homogeneity and reliability, and the awareness of the local community It has a significant relationship on the development of ecotourism with the mediating role of cultural poverty with the test statistic value of 4.195 and economic poverty with the test statistic value of 5.397. The results showed that the awareness of the local community on the development of ecotourism with the test statistic value of 2.032 indicates the low level of awareness of the local community towards the development of ecotourism.
