Rural women's microfinance funds mediator to change in environmental attitudes and desert control and management-Case study: carbon sequestration project, south Khorasan

Lack of proper business is one of the factors affecting the exploitation of natural resources and desertification. Low per capita income, low savings and lack of access to credit for poor people, especially for women, make it difficult to eliminate self-employment, productive jobs and income-generating businesses. In desert and arid areas, under such conditions, livelihoods are the only way to increase the pressure on ecosystems and unskilled exploitation. Microfinance for women without income is one of the possible ways of achieving sustainable economic and social development in these areas. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of credit microfinance funds on the empowerment of rural women as the weakest economic community in these areas. The research method was descriptive-analytic. A sample of 188 rural women members of the Southern Khorasan Mortgage Fund was considered. To ensure the validity of the questionnaire, the research committee examined and verified the various dimensions of the questionnaire. The reliability level of the questionnaire was obtained using Cronbach's alpha (0.952). Pearson correlation test, mean comparison, and ANOVA and POST HOC and LSD post hoc tests were used in statistical analysis in SPSS software environment. The results of this study showed that there was a meaningful relationship between the empowerment of rural women and age variables, the number of years of membership in welfare funds, educational level, loan adequacy, loan amount, monthly income and their environmental outlook, and the level of empowerment varied among rural women. The research findings showed that microfinance credits were able to improve the socio-economic status of local communities by attracting women's participation as permanent partners in desert management.