Identification and Analysis of the Factors Affecting the Participation of Rural People in Ecosystem Conservation Projects (Caspian Hyrcanian Forests Project)

This study aims at investigating the factors affecting the villagers' participation in natural resource conservation projects. This study is to investigate the perspectives of experts in natural resource projects towards the factors influencing the participation through identifying and recognizing the factors affecting the villagers' participation in natural resource projects by using Q-research method. First, an attempt has been made to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the causes of the villagers' participation based on the results of research projects related to the villagers' participation in natural resource projects and analysis of the existing discursive context. Then, different views on this issue were identified and classified with the involvement of experts to take a step far from the presented analysis. At the next step, by using purposive sampling of experts involved in natural resources, 36 subjects participated in the Q-sorting stage. According to the logic of Q-methodology, the Q-Factor analysis as the main method for analyzing Q data matrix was used. The results of Q-factor analysis indicated three perspectives of natural resources experts with regards to the factors influencing the participation. The first perspective is characterized as "participatory" and emphasizes on the role of rural communities in all stages of the project implementation. The second perspective is based on the societies' "empowerment" and the third one focuses on the development of "knowledge" in local communities. Furthermore, the item "considering the economic needs of beneficiaries in designing plans for the protection of natural resources" with its repetition in all three perspectives had the highest frequency and the research dominant discourse focuses on this item. Attracting the actual participation of Iranian specialists to participate in Q- methodology is time consuming and difficult.