Prioritization of factors affecting the non-participation of exploiters in watershed management projects (Case Study: Chikan and Morzian Watershed of Sepidan, Fars Province)

Researches in recent years have shown that the implementation of watershed management projects without the participation of the public has not been successful and has led to the inefficiency of projects in watershedchr('39')s protection. In order to solve this problem, prioritizing the indexes and sub-indexes affecting the non-participation of people is a fundamental step in the watershed management cycle, so that identifying the effective factors and prioritizing them will lead to maximum participation of the watershed residents. According to this goal, in this research, prioritization of effective factors was done on non-participation in watershed management projects from the exploiters viewpoint in Chikan and Morzian Sepidan watershed located in northwest of Fars province. The statistical population of this research was 51 exploiters (stakeholders) using Cochran formula. A questionnaire consisting of four indices and twelve sub-indices with Likert scale was used for data collection. The significance of indices and sub-indices was determined by SPSS software (version 23) using t-test and the Friedman nonparametric test was used to prioritize the effective indices and sub-indices. The results showed that in the prioritization of indicators from the beneficiarychr('39')s point of view "economic", "social", "educational-promotion" and "design-executive" indices were the effective factors, respectively and in sub-index "lack of training of basin residents on related plans and objectives" and "lack of attention to Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) in watershed planning", had the highest and lowest priority in non-participation in watershed planning, respectively. In order to sustainable participation of exploiters in watershed management projects, it is necessary to solve the "economic" problems of beneficiaries and develop a comprehensive program of training and promotion of practical actions.