Effective Factors on Stakeholder's Willingness to Participate at Watershed Management Projects in Hezarkhani Watershed

Considering importance of natural resources conservation, developing participatory strategies to protect these resources is necessary and fundamental. With public participation in each project, the implementation and conservation of the project is done in short period of time with low cost and more desirable. Main objective of this research is identifying factors influencing on people tendency to participate in watershed projects, which in its nature considers two paradigms of quality and quantity. Statistical population in this research in quantitative part includes all people who live in the Hezarkhani Watershed in Kermanshah province (N=450). 207 persons were selected based on Cochran formula through random sampling method. To collect data a questionnaire was used and it was completed by face to face interview. In this study, content validation was confirmed through counseling with qualified experts, specialists and professors who were familiar with public participation concepts. To determine the sustainability, Cronbach's alpha method was used. Cronbach's alpha for dependent variables was 0.93, for social factors 0.92, for communication factors 0.85 and for economic factors 0.89, which showed that the variables were in line and had high internal coordination. The results of the correlation analysis showed that there is a significantly positive relationship between the dependent variable of public participation in watershed projects with education level, number of livestock and land area and there is negative significant relationship with stakeholder’s age. In addition, the results of the path analysis indicated that land area, education level, economic factors, and number of livestock showed the greatest impact on the willingness of stakeholders to participate. Age, social factors, relationship factors and information sources have minimal impact on the willingness of stakeholders to participation. These factors and items explained 68.6 percent of the participation rate. In order to attract public participation in the projects, it is suggested to increase the incentives and awareness of the stakeholders through conducting training classes, improving mass media programs and exploiting social media.