Prioritizing Environmental Hazards of Mangrove Forests in Hormozgan Province

Mangrove forests are always exposed to damages caused by various natural and anthropogenic hazards, so planning is necessary to provide appropriate tools to prevent or reduce the effects of these hazards. Therefore, in this study, natural and anthropogenic hazards to mangrove forests in Hormozgan province have been conducted with the aim of identifying and introducing them to management sections in order to reduce risk and prevention of risk factors. The initial list of threats was identified by reviewing internal and external sources and interviews with experts in the area and 34 threat factors were identified. Based on the identified threats, a questionnaire was prepared and its qualitative and quantitative validities were determined. According to relative validity method, 8 criteria (Lopping, reduction of basin environmental water right, oil leakage from vessels, development of ports and offshore structures, coastal erosion, grazing the wandering camels, Changes in precipitation pattern and water salinity pattern) had the least validity. The final list of threats was determined by Delphi method and the weighting of each was done by Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. Prioritization of threats showed that lopping, oil leakage from vessels and coastal erosion are the most important threats to mangrove forests in Hormozgan Province.