Evaluation of the "hunting prohibited region" to promote it to the "Protected Area" (A case study on Sefidkoohe Aresk hunting prohibited region in Damghan)

Considering the fast-growing destruction of natural resources and the existing threats to bio-diversification، the necessity of investigating and elevating the conservation level of such areas has become a challenge. This research which was conducted in SefidKooh Aresk prohibited hunting area in Damghan، is intended to investigate the possibility of elevating its conservation level from a «Prohibited Hunting Area» to a «Conserved Area». Rather than the normal practices applied for investigating the conservation level، this research utilized a systematic approach to identify the status of the region and to find the possible ways for its elevation. For this purpose، a combination of «Carlos RiveroBlanco، Blanco and Mario Gabaldon» and «SumerGulez» valuation method criteria is used at the first step. The importance of each criterion in relation to the objective of the research is determined using Delphi method. The «one sample chi- square test» is used to analyze the outcomes of Delphi questionnaires. At the next step، the final criteria were sent to the local experts in the form of questionnaire for further examination of the region and its situation. The final level of the region was determined through the outcomes of such study. To assess the above mentioned evaluation، the research team tested some scenarios to examine the closest scenarios to the assessed score by using T-test with two samples. The final result of this test indicates its proximity to the score of appropriate situation scenario. Therefore، it is concluded that the situation of the investigated region is appropriate for being elevated to a Conserved Area.