Effects of social cohesion on the participation rate of beneficiaries in reclamation and improvement practices of Golestan winter rangelands

Considering the importance and basic role of participation and social cohesion of beneficiaries in the success of reclamation and improvement projects, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of rangeland beneficiaries' social cohesion on their participation in reclamation and improvement activities in northeastern rangelands of Golestan province.
This research was descriptive-survey, conducted with stratified random sampling. Questionnaires were used for data collection. The validity of research was examined by using the views of natural resources and social sciences experts and its reliability was assessed according to the Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the main variables. The statistical population of the study consisted of 461 exploiters in two nomadic and rural exploitation systems (N = 461), among which 210 beneficiaries were interviewed using Morgan table. According to the results, the interaction section with an average of 3.75 and the conflict section with an average of 3.73 had the most and least impact on the social cohesion of the beneficiaries, respectively. The findings indicate that the beneficiaries have more contributed to reclamation practices as compared with rangeland improvement projects.Also, there was a positive and significant correlation between the social cohesion and the participation rate of beneficiaries in reclamation and improvement plans with a correlation coefficient of 0.474 at a confidence level of 99%. Nomadic beneficiaries had more social cohesion than rural beneficiaries.  Moreover, there was no significant difference in the participation rate in both nomadic and rural exploitation systems.Thus, the potential of local communities could be used in conducting range improvement and reclamation practices in areas where interaction and social cohesion are high.