Prioritizing Affecting Factors on Barriers Sustainable Non Participation of Rural Communities in Aquifer Management Projects from a beneficiary's Perspective in Bishezard Watershed of Fars Province

Engaging people to conserve natural resources is the most rational way. This by reducing the running costs will guarantee the success and implementation of the projects more effectively. For this purpose, the present study was conducted to identify and prioritize the effective indices and sub-indices on the lack of sustainable participation of rural communities in aquifer management projects from the beneficiarychr('39')s viewpoint in Bishezard watershed of Fars province. In this research, 83 stakeholders and residents of the watershed was chosen as statistical population using Cochran formula. To collect data, a questionnaire consisting of four indices and twelve sub-indices with Likert scale was used. 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 indices from the beneficiarychr('39')s point of view "educational-promotion", "design-executive", "social" and "economic" indices were ranked with an average of 9.75, 9.49, 6.98 and 5.93 as effective indicators, respectively and in sub-indices, "Lack of attention to local force in project implementation (employment)" and "Late-yielding projects" with an average of 11.40 and 5.74 had the highest and lowest priority in non-participation in aquifer management projects, respectively. This finding indicates that if employment is resolved in this watershed, people are willing to take the time accomplish projects. It is recommended that managers of natural resources plan and implement practical training and promotion activities related to natural resources and aquifer management issues.