Ranking of Protected Areas of the Hamedan Province based on Conservation Criteria

Protected areas are extensive land with high conservation value that are selected with the aimed of preserving and restoring of vegetation sites and animals’ habitats.In order to effectiveness management of protected areas, we need to consider this area based on conservation criteria. In this study of protected area of the Hamedan province were evaluated regards to introduced conservation criteria for protection and using Analytical Hierarchy Process. A hierarchical structure was designed for each of the areas. The opinion of a number of experts of natural environment sector of Province Environmental Protection Administration and university professors were collected using a questionnaire including pairwise comparison matrix, and based on it, the weight of the criteria for different regions, was obtained. Then with regard to the obtained importance coefficient for conservation criteria protected areas of this province were ranked. The results showed that Khangormaz, Almobelagh and Malosan protected areas, are more important to protect. The method used in this study can be usful as a database for protection experts, managers and planners of protected areas.