Introduction of factors affecting monetization of medicinal plants from perspective of experts and utilizers (Case study: Lazur rangeland, Tehran province)

Medicinal plants are among the valuable natural resources of countries and can play a significant role in earning income and employment. To utilize the medicinal plants properly, the socio-economic factors affecting the monetization of these plants should be analyzed. Therefore, the present qualitative study was aimed at investigating the various factors affecting the ability to earn money from the medicinal plants of Lazur rangelands in Tehran province. The questionnaire and statistical communities of experts and utilizers were used to collect the required data. The responsive communities were selected based on the reputation analysis and purposeful sampling. This research was conducted in two parts. In the first part, the economic, social, natural, physical-infrastructural, human, and institutional policy factors were compared in pairs and ranked in terms of their contribution to the monetization of medicinal plants. To determine the most effective factor, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used and the judgments were made about the acceptance or rejection of the given ranks using the inconsistency rate. In the second part, some items were considered for each factor and the items were ranked separately on the Likert scale in terms of their role in the monetization. To compare the item rankings, the Mann-Whitney non-parametric analysis was used for two data sets and the Friedman one for more than two data sets. The results showed that in terms of the responsive communities, the economic factor with the first rank and institutional policy factor with the third rank were the most important factors in the monetization of medicinal plants. The physical and natural factors ranked second in terms of the local communities and experts, respectively. The means comparison of the items in the social, physical-infrastructural, and human factors showed that the mean score of items of each factor in the monetization had a statistically significant difference (p < /em>-value<0.05). In general, the results of present study showed that the provision of facilities, governmental support, processing facilities in the region, and coordination of activities of other institutions had the highest rank and therefore a greater role in the monetization of medicinal plants in the region.