Investigating the Role of Social Capital in Environmental Protection in Ilam City

The relationship between the environment and social capital is one of the newest subjects which have attracted the attention of the environmental researchers. Scholars believe that the levels of social capital have a significant effect on the environmental behaviors and the protection of the environment, and the environmental behaviors of people and their tendency to maintain the environment depend on personalities, conditions and social capacities in a society. In other words, the main objective of this paper is to investigate the role of social capital in protecting the environment in Ilam City.

The method used in this study is analytical-descriptive. The statistical population includes the residents of Ilam City, and 383 of them were chosen as the sample using Cochran's Formula, and they were given the questionnaires by Stratified Random Sampling Method. To gather the required data, the researcher-made questionnaire was used whose validity and reliability were confirmed by experts and by Cronbach's alpha, which was calculated to be 0.879. To analyze the data, correlation and regression tests in LISREL application were used.

The findings reveal that there is a positive significant relationship between the social capital and protecting the environment. Furthermore, there is a positive significant relationship between the components of the relational capital and cognitive capital and protecting the environment. However, there is no relationship between the component of structural capital and protecting the environment.

In order to realize the predetermined objectives of protecting the environment with the least amount of expenses and the most cooperation based on trust and affinity, social capital in the society is of utmost importance. The higher the social capital in a community, the higher the willingness and tendency to protect the environment in that community.