Investigating the Impact of Local Communities’ Knowledge on Perceived Biodiversity Loss in the Sorkhabad Protected Area of the Zanjan Province

Stakeholders’ knowledge is one of the essential elements of biodiversity management. This research assesses local communities’ knowledge and its impact on the perceived biodiversity loss in the Sorkhabad Protected Area of the Zanjan Province using a quantitative (descriptive-correlational) methodology. A sample of 250 out of all rural households dependent on the protected area (N = 5095) was identified using Cochran's formula as the sample size who were selected by a multi-stage random sampling technique. The results showed that the respondents' knowledge about the ecosystem services and the challenges of biodiversity was at high and moderate levels, respectively. The results of regression analysis showed that the variables of knowledge about ecosystem provisioning services, knowledge about the impact of human factors related to unsustainable local community activities on biodiversity, knowledge about the impact of poor community livelihood conditions on biodiversity, knowledge about the impact of factors related to ineffective intervention conditions on biodiversity and knowledge about the impact of natural hazards to biodiversity accounts for 52 percent of the variance of perceived biodiversity loss in the protected areas.