Explaining the Environmental Attitude of Rural Women in Zagros Forests of Lorestan Province

This research was conducted to explain the environmental attitudes of rural women in Zagros forests. The statistical population of this research included all rural women over 15 years old living in the margins of Zagros forests in Lorestan province, whose livelihood was, directly and indirectly, dependent on Zagros forests (N = 231000). Sample size was determined using Kerjci and Morgan table. The sampling method was multi-stage cluster sampling with proportional assignment (based on forest area in each city). The main research instrument was a questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by a panel of experts and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.698-0.880). Data analysis was performed by SPSS software. The results of correlation analysis showed that education, forest dependence, social norms, sense of belonging, social responsibility, social participation, social environmentalism, self-efficacy and environmental knowledge and information have a positive and significant relationship with rural women's attitudes toward forest protection. In addition, the regression results showed that among all the known factors, four factors of self-efficacy, social responsibility, social environmentalism and forest dependence were the most influential factors on the attitude of rural women so that these four factors are able to explain 60.3% of the total variance of the factors. In general, it can be said that due to the high importance of the self-efficacy variable in explaining the protective attitude of rural women, it is necessary to strengthen their professional skills by properly teaching forest protection methods among rural women.