Introduction of a method for sustainable land management based on IUCN criteria in Kusalan Rangelands of Kurdestan province

Kusalan range is a northwest-southeast mountain near Sarvabad, west of Kurdistan. The habitat includes a complex set of ecological functions and unique mountainous values such as Quercus forests, dense ranges, as well as various springs inside and around the region. So far, there was no study on the bioenvironmental habitat potential. This persuaded us to conduct a research on the habitat and ecosocial potentials according to IUCN categories using data bases like other literatures, 10 m2 panchromatic SPOT5 2005 data, expert opinions and field studies. Analysis of ecosocial and ecological bioenvironmental sources was implemented through a geographic information system (R2V, Arc/Info, Idrisi and Arc View). After qualitative and quantitative evaluation of various sources, land units were observed from overlaying maps of land form, soil categories, vegetation type, wildlife habitats, land use and conventional territory. Illustrated map show that about 70 percent of the area has a great conservational potential thus, the zonation process on the basis of IUCN definitions executed. The studied area was a habitat for 224 species of flora and 195 species of fauna classified as 5 categories: 29% core zone, 41% buffer zone, 14%expanded recreation zone, 3% intensive recreation zone and 14% cultural historical zone of Hawraman city and Pir-Shaliar annual ceremony and 13.2% reclamation zone including scientific, training values, virgin features and unique landscapes. Thus, Kusalan habitat worth to be introduced a national park (II) as a member of quadruplet national protected area in Iran. According to the results, GIS and RS approaches (hybrid interpretation of high resolution SPOT5 images) certainly can support determining and preparing bioenvironmental map sources in impracticable areas for conservational studies on IUCN criteria basis.