The role of defense actions on natural resources crisis management (Case study: West of Kurdistan province)

     Rapid population growth and ever-increasing demand for food lead to increase the exploitation of natural resources compared to the previous period and the continuation of this trend could lead to negative consequences and environmental crises, threatening human security and ecosystems. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the status of natural resources in West of Kurdistan Province and the role of defense actions on natural resources crisis management. The population of this study consisted of the villagers of West of Kurdistan Province (N = 133837). The sample size was calculated to be 220 using Cochran's formula. The data were collected using a questionnaire. The face and content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by panel of experts and the reliability of instrument was confirmed by conducting a pre-test and calculating a Cronbach's alpha coefficient more than 0.70 for different sections of the questioner. The data analysis was performed using SPSs20 software. The findings showed that from the perspective of 95% of respondents, the degradation of natural resources is evaluated at a high level. The results also showed that the defense actions including passive defense and the level of satisfaction from defense operating actions had a significant negative effect on the degradation of natural resources in the study area. Also, the results showed that 41.7% of the variations of the natural resources degradation was explained by defense activities.