Investigation of Rural People's Participation in Management of Forest Natural Resources in Eastern Bandpey District, Babol County of Iran

One of the main obstacles in rural sustainable development is the top-down planning approach and insufficient attention to comprehensive rural development. The main characteristic of such plans is to pay little attention to rural people and their participation in their concerned affairs. This study aimed at investigating the effective factors in the extent of rural people's participation in management of forest natural resources in eastern Bandpay district of Babol county of Iran. The statistical population included the mentioned household heads of the region out of which 328 participants were selected in Cochran sampling method. The studied data were collected through observation, interview and questionnaire and analyzed through descriptive (frequency, mean) and inferential (correlation and Freedman tests) statistics. The study results showed that in spite of the inhabitant's high tendency, their participation in conservation, renewal and implementation activities was low; in addition, there was a positive correlation between their participation in the activities related to natural resources and those of social, economic, structural and institutional factors.