The recognizing of rangeland problems in view of rangeland utilizers (Case study: the Northwest rangelands of Iran)

Rangelands of Iran are being faced with various problems. One of the main issues of today’s rangeland managers is not having a clear picture about the main rangeland problems. The aim of the present study is thus to investigate the view of rangeland utilizers by constructing a stem flow. The utilizers are the one who influence rangelands directly. Knowledge of Ttheir view and pure knowledge about rangeland management problems are critically important. Iran's rangeland management systems were systematically constructed as stem flow criteria in 3 levels. The relative weight determined by Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The criteria were politic- social, ecologic and economic. The rangeland utilizers were then asked to rank the elements of levels at each criteria through pair-wise comparison by questionnaires and direct interview. The validity and reliability of questionnaires were approved by a panel of experts and calculating Cronbach alpha coefficient (above 0.7) respectively. Results showed that water shortage (relative weight 0.576), inflation (relative weight 0.385), laws (relative weight 0.293), planning (relative weight 0.282) and property (relative weight 0.384) as well as ownership were the main roots of Iran's rangeland system inefficiency from utilizers point of view.