Extraction hierarchical structure of rangeland management system of Iran

Problems of Iranian rangelands are numerous and providing solutions for them is impossible except through comprehensive investigation. The purpose of this study was to extract the management structure of Iranian rangelands. The study tools were questionnaires and interview. This study was conducted in three stages of exploration, evaluation, and analysis and extraction of the final structure. In the exploratory stage, the position of different parts of Iran's rangeland management structure was purposefully determined with a survey of experts in education, research, and executive sectors as well as rangeland exploiters. In this stage, the initial hierarchical structure of the factors influencing management of rangelands was designed (panel section). In the evaluation stage, using the questionnaire, the structure was subjected to the judgment of the responsive communities. In the final stage, using statistical analysis of data, the final hierarchical structure was extracted and designed. The accuracy and reliability of the resulting model was evaluated using Cronbach's coefficient. In this study, the statistical software SPSS 18 and STATISTICA were used. According to the results, Iran’s rangeland system consists of three levels in a hierarchical manner. Rangeland arena, education and research system, executive system and exploitation system are located in the first level. Each component at the first level was subdivided into its sub-components at lower levels. This structure more accurately categorizes the problems and makes it more understandable and more manageable. In this way, more strategic and managerial actions could be taken at each level and component.