Priority for multi-purpose use of vegetation of Koohrang mountain rangelands, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, province, Iran

With the multi-purpose use of rangelands, grazing pressure in rangelands can be reduced and an important step can be taken to preserve rangeland ecosystems and improve related ecosystem services. Therefore, the present study aimed to determine the priority of multi-purpose use of vegetation in Koohrang mountain rangeland in terms of livestock grazing, beekeeping and exploitation of medicinal plants. For this purpose, the class of each plant species for different types of use was determined and by comparing different classes and considering the good species (class I and II plants) for livestock grazing; the priority of using any was determined. Finally, based on the share of types of use for the total number of plant species in the plant composition, it was decided on the type of multi-purpose use of vegetation. Based on the results, 178 plant species belonging to 32 families and 138 genera are distributed in the plant composition of the region. In terms of livestock grazing, respectively 11.79, 29.21, 48.31and 10.67 percent of the species have palatable class I, II, Ш grazable and Ш non-grazable. For beekeeping, attractive species for beekeeping include plants with good attractiveness (Class I), medium attractiveness (Class II), low attractiveness (Class III usable) and plants without attractiveness (Class III unused), respectively 11.79, 49.94, 4.44 and 38.76 percentage of species in plant composition. Oral and medicinal species, contain about 50% of the plant composition, which respectively 19.10, 16.85,12.92 and 50 percentage of species have usefulness classes I, II, Ш pharmaceutically usable and Ш non-pharmacologically useful. Meanwhile, 18.53% of medicinal plants can be grazed on livestock and are in class I and II in terms of livestock grazing. In total, 18.53percent of medicinal plants can be grazed and are in food grade I and II in terms of grazing. The results show that the use of medicinal plants is effective in the livelihood of beneficiaries and according to the phenology of plant species and rangeland segmentation, vegetation can be used in the context of multi-purpose use.