Assessing the success of forestry cooperatives in Kurdistan province using Capacity Development Scorecards

Forestry cooperatives are among the few formal institutions to involve local people in natural resource management. Therefore, many efforts have been made to hand over natural resource management to forestry cooperatives. However, there are many issues regarding the success of forestry cooperatives in achieving planned objectives. In the present study, the performance of forestry cooperatives of Kurdistan province in Marivan, Sarvabad, and Sanandaj counties was evaluated. Capacity development scorecards were used to assess cooperatives' performance in four criteria including conservation, restoration and rehabilitation, development, and utilization of forest resources and indices corresponding to each criterion were used based on the forestry plans. The statistical population of the study consisted of the managing directors of six registered forestry cooperatives and experts in charge of cooperatives affairs in the Natural Resources and Watershed Management Organization of the Kurdistan province. Data were collected through field observations and interviews. The results showed that in terms of built capacity, Negel Cooperative was in better condition, and Barghrrou Cooperative was in poor condition. The mean score of conservation, restoration, and development criteria for all cooperatives was close to 1 and 2 for utilization criterion in the level of built capacity. This level indicates that measures are planned to be implemented, however, lack of funding, lack of oversight over implementation, scarcity and inadequacy of budget, temporal actions in initiation years, and limitations of the taken actions, lead to failure in meeting the objectives. Efforts are needed to redefine the cooperative institution and its expected tasks and roles in the field of renewable natural resources management. Hence, responsible organizations need to take more vigorous actions to empower forestry cooperatives.