Searching for Humanitarian and Economic Factors Influencing on Rangelands Degradation (Case Study: Eshtehard, Karaj)

Iran is not only country in the world facing the problem of rangeland degradation. However, as Iran is located in an arid and semiarid region, rangeland preservation is especially of great importance. Although efforts to reduce the damage has already made by the government, but these have been very little in proportion to the severity of current degradation rate. On the other hand, since the main cause of damage to pasture is farmers, so not much satisfactory results will be achieved without their cooperation and participation. The main target of this research is to study the influence of social and economic factors on rangeland degradation in Eshtehard, Karaj, Alborz. The method used in his study was based on three elements: library study (documents and evidences), field study and data analysis. The information required was collected from farmers and experts were working in natural resources offices of the above-mentioned cities, the data was then analyzed by SPSS as well as descriptive and inferential tests. The results obtained showed that from the point of view of both users and experts, changing land application was the most important factor in the destruction of rangelands. Moreover, the economic and social factors were significantly related to the severity of degradation. But the education level of pasture farmers (ranchers) and the shortage of experts in relevant government departments did not show any significant correlation with the severity of degradation.