نشریه حفاظت و بهره برداری از منابع طبیعی
سال چهارم شماره 1 (1394)

The appropriate management and protection of natural resources are important issues in present age. Therefore, design and explanations of appropriate institutions and organizational structures is one of the challenges for many countries. This article attempts to answer this challenge by introducing the use of local councils. In this regard, with introducing the successful experiences of local councils in natural resource management, the Rural Islamic Councils has been considered as local organization which can be used in forming a suitable organizational structure. For more investigation a survey research was done. The studied population was consisted of members of Rural Islamic Councils (RICs) in protected areas of Fars province. Through stratified random sampling 104 members of RICs in 52 villages were chosen as sample. Needed information was gathered using a questionnaire which developed based on research questions. Data was analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive statistics. Results showed a lot of acceptability of RICs decisions among rural people and there is a great hope for participation of the RICs in natural resources conservation. This paper introduces the necessary measures and appropriate extension approaches for participation of the RICs in natural resources conservation.

Usage of rangeland enclosure is one of the useful study and research tools which can make interpretable the long and short term effects of grazing in rangelands. Involved ecologists and rangeland managers have always considered the rangeland enclosure; therefore many researches have been conducted on the effects of rangeland enclosure on vegetation cover and soil changes in Iran. Although it seems that these researches have not been very successful in making the final decision in the use of rangeland enclosure in reclamation of country’s rangelands. One of the main reasons is that the results of these researches have not been gathered in one article. Therefore it is necessary to achieve a nearly coherent summation and conclusion out of the researches done inthis area. One of the methods that are used in these situations is the meta-analytic methods, which is considered as a descriptive method in the analysis and evaluation. Meta-analysis results of enclosure studies in Iran show that in these studies the social and economic effects of enclosure as important and influential parts of the country's rangeland are neglected. Short-term enclosure is recommended, if possible, as a management tool for reclamation of country’s rangelands. Although, this treatment due to combating with rangeland utilizers and watershed residents’ living, need to skills and paying attention to the social and economic aspects. To solve the mentioned problem, it is necessary to incept necessary predictions in reducing the number of livestock and providing other sources of income for inhabitants of the watershed in contemporary with rangeland enclosure

In the recent decades, numerous strategies and models have been developed aiming to evaluatethe impactsof forest managementscenarios on the animal species habitat. Some of these models investigate habitat suitability indicessuch as SIMFOR. SIMFOR has been developed to help the forest managers with assessment the forestry activities such astimber harvest. This model indicates the habitat changes against timber harvest through modeling forest attributes and preparing habitat suitability maps. Needed Initial data including base maps showed the current status of study region and harvest schedule data and habitat attributesaffecting target species. Habitat simulation in SIMFOR is donefor a long 200-year period. The resultsof this model are used in editing forest management programs and harvest scenarios in order topreserve wildlife habitat dwelling in the forests. Therefore, this model could be as a solutionaiming to solve the conflictsbetween conservation experts and forest managers.

Today, most cities in the world, especially in developing countries are facing a variety of environmental problems. Iran, as a consequence of its economic, social, cultural and political conditions, has environmental problems and challenges that studying and evaluating them will improve environment progresses. This research tries to analyze the Environmental Development Policy Document of Hormozgan Province through investigation and analysis of inter-organizational relation network using network analysis approach, Visone software, and cut points, degree and betweenness centralities, and also non-metric multidimensional scaling index. Results showed that this policy document has several strengths from inter-organizational relation perspective such as existence of a multi-sectoral view on the environment, networking approach in document codification, and emphasizing on planner and policy-maker organizations such as planning department of governor and the governor. In addition network analysis can help natural resource managers and planners in policy-making and the sustainable management.

In this study evaluation of erosion rate in Bolhasan area locating in south Zagros wasperformed using six-factor FAO method. Inthis method estimation of soil erosion rate was done based on evaluating 6 factors including geology, soil, topography and slope, soil cover, land use, the current state of erosion and sediment production in the watershed. After grading all the factors in hydrologic units in study area, using the sum of these grades, the intensityof soil erosion was determined and was classified into six classes. The results showed that approximately 42% of soils of the study area are in class III and 58% in class IV that revisions in the management strategy in both classes is necessary. In order to analyze the most important factors of erosion in the study area TOPSIS method was used. Results confirmed that the current situation of erosion with the weight of 0.5855 is the most important factor of erosion in the study site. Then the next important factors of erosion were soil cover with score 0.4143, geology with score0.4141,land use with score0.4140, slope with score0.4138 and soil with score0.4135.In this study, combining the field observations with application of GIS caused a higher accuracy in evaluationprocess.

Wild Pistacia veraL. is one of the broad leaf species which grows in Khorasan Razavi, Khorasan Shomali and Golestan provinces of Iran. Narrow habitat range, lack of natural regeneration and establishment due to habitat degradation and inappropriate utilization has put this species under threat, therefore its protection and conservation is of importance. To evaluate the possibility of long-term preservation of Pistacia vera seeds, three pre-cryopreservation methods including PVS2, desiccation, and 30% glycerol in addition to control were applied. In field experiments the treated seeds were kept for onemonth under cryopreservation conditions,then were planted in the field under rainfed conditions. The treated seeds were kept in liquid nitrogen (LN) for periods of 1 week, 1 month, and 1 year then were removed and some traits related to seed germination and establishment were evaluated.The results showed that Pistacia vera seeds are able to tolerate cryopreservation conditions and are able to germinate under field conditions and the cultivated plants produced flowers and fruits after 6 years. Results showed thatthere is significant difference among cryopreservation pre-treatments in most traits and PVS2 was the best pre-treatment. Therefore,it is possible to preserve the seeds of this valuable and endangered species for long-term under cryopreservation condition and in case of any possible threat the preserved seeds can be used for reclamation of degraded habitats

Defect detection is of importance in different industries. This importance is greater in wood industries because of direct relation between quality and price of wood products. For several years, traditional methods have been used for defect detection in which wood surfaces wereanalyzed manually by hand but this method had problems such as its time consuming nature and possibility of human errors. Nowadays automated methods have been developed based on computerized detection and classification of defects in captured images. In automated methods, at first image of lumber or wood is captured using a high quality camera. In the next step the captured image is segmented to flawless and defective areas. Finally,different features are extracted from defects and based on it the types and details of defective areas can be determined. Variety oftextures of the wood surfaces, wood surfacescolors, non-uniformity and defects which are similar to the main texture of wood are some of challenges in process of defect detection on wood surfaces.In this article, several methods for segmentation and extraction of features from wood surface are reviewed which have been developed to overcome these challenges.