Using the Attitude of Stakeholders as Evidence to Prevent the Destruction of Rangelands (Case Study: Lorestan, Markazi and Semnan Provinces)

Rangeland management is more difficult than other areas because the management of these areas includes integration and management of forage production, livestock production and forage utilization at one time and one place. Therefore, it is important to consider the various dimensions of the stakeholder groups in the management and long term planning of rangelands. This research was conducted with the aim of investigate the attitude of stakeholders towards rangeland apportion in three provinces of Lorestan, Markazi and Semnan. This included apportioning between and within utilization units and determining the boundaries of rangeland using common parlance, law, or both.

In order to collect data, levels were first considered for each of the variables. Then the data were collected using a a standardized questionnaire and analyzed using the chi-square test in SPSS software.

From the results of the frequency of the variables, it was found that from the point of view of the most of the respondents, the apportion between the utilization units has been done; While the apportion within the utilization units has not been done. In addition, in Lorestan and Central provinces, 68.90% and 68.35% of stakeholders, respectively, gave more importance to the legal in determining the boundaries of rangelands. But in Semnan province, 40.67% of the stakeholders have given more importance to custom. Also, the result showed that most stakeholders were satisfied with the apportion of utilization units between and within units. In Lorestan province there was a significant relationship between the job variable (P <0.01) and invasion to rangelands (P <0.05) with satisfaction with the apportion between utilization units, invasion to rangelands (P <0.05) with satisfaction with apportion of utilization units and education (P <0.05) and tendency to leave the job in custom or legal way in determining rangeland boundaries. Also in Markazi province, there was a statistically significant relationship between the variable of nomadic cooperative company (P <0.05) with the apportion between utilization units and in Semnan province between the variable of rangeland condition and the variable of apportion within utilization units (P <0.05).

According to the findings of this research, from the point of view of the stakeholders, the apportion utilization units is a problem in Iran, but in other countries, the apportion utilization units has not been a problem.Therefore, it is necessary to solve this problem based on local knowledge of the region. Because this leads to making unbiased decisions based on scientific and objective information. In addition, rangeland protection policies and measures can be improved based on the attitude of the stakeholders. In general, investigating the attitude of the stakeholders, in addition to providing important insights about the observations, understanding and interpretation of the social effects and ecological results of the destruction of rangelands, guarantees the support of the stakeholders in the long term.