Analysis of the Challenges Faced by Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations in Kurdistan Province of Iran

Over the past several decades, the environmental catastrophes predisposed the appearance of the NGOs, being responsible for protecting the environment. For such organizations to be effective and promising, the dilemmas and obstacles on their way should be recognized and handled. As a result, this study aimed at providing more insight to determine the challenges and problems faced by these organizations and to evaluate the solutions in order to assist development of a new strategy for them. A survey research method was used. The research population included the members of 9 environmental NGOs, in Kurdistan province, formed since 2000-06 (N= 1200). 230 members were determined as sample size by using Cochran formula. A questionnaire was used as the study instrument, the face validity of which was fulfilled by relevant expert's suggestions; and also, its reliability was confirmed by calculating Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (0.92). The factor analysis indicated that five factors including managerial, supportive, social, communicative and organizational factors accounted for 73.8 percent of variance of the challenges and problems of environmental NGOs.